‘Polanski is a menace to Jews’: Greens and Labour face-off in by-election | Firsthand

By The Telegraph

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Zack Polanski is running to take Sir Keir Starmer’s old seat in Holborn and St Pancras. He is challenging Labour, and its candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, in a constituency the party has held since its inception in 1983. Labour is confident that the "Burnham bounce" can help propel them to victory in a seat where voters had begun to lose faith in Sir Keir. But the party would be foolish to dismiss Mr Polanski. His brand of Left-wing populism, including his radical policy to cap rents, has resonated well in a seat where fewer than a third of residents own their homes. However, for all his support, the Green leader's perceived failure to tackle anti-Semitism within his party has motivated a separate bloc of voters terrified by the prospect of him becoming their local MP. If Mr Polanski can't win here, in a seat that perhaps best defines the stereotype of the "North London liberal elite", what does that mean for his future as leader? The Telegraph took to the streets of Camden to find out.

Tags: Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Zack Polanski, Green Party UK, Labour Party, Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer, UK politics, London by-election, student politics, housing crisis London, Andrew Feinstein, Reform UK, anti-semitism claims, Jewish community hustings, The Telegraph, Holborn voters, St Pancras voters, progressive politics UK, Middle East conflict UK politics, political debate London