Is Zack Polanski About To Run For Keir Starmer’s Old Seat?

All eyes are on Zack Polanski after former prime minister Keir Starmer announced he was resigning as a London MP.

The Green Party leader – who is currently a London Assembly member – has repeatedly insisted he would only run to be an MP if a seat in the capital became available.

A Green Party spokesperson then failed to rule out the possibility of Polanski campaigning to replace Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency on Tuesday, after the ex-PM’s resignation.

They told HuffPost UK: “Zack has always made it clear he would like to be a London MP.

“London has been his home for over 20 years.”

Starmer’s former seat, in north-west London, has only voted in Labour MPs since the constituency was created in 1983.

But there could be signs that enthusiasm for Labour in the area are waning.

Starmer secured a very comfortable majority of 27,763 in 2019 only for it to fall to 11,572 in the 2024 general election.

The Greens came in fourth place in the seat back in 2019 with 2,746 votes.

However, their vote share increased to 4,030 in 2024 and they came in third place behind Labour and an independent candidate.

That suggests there might be a growing appetite for the left-wing party.

Polanski reportedly resides in Hackney, in east London.

However, he has previously refused to run against one of Hackney’s two MPs, telling HuffPost UK he would not to challenge Labour left-winger Diane Abbott in any future by-election.

He said: “I think Diane Abbott’s wonderful, and I’d be highly unlikely to run against her.”

Polanski also declined to stand in any of other three by-elections – Gorton and Denton, Makerfield or Clacton – held in England this year.

The London Assembly member was elected as the Green leader a year ago.

He oversaw a huge boom in popularity for the party, with their membership tripling during his first six months in the post.

However a series of social media missteps, including Polanski’s critiques of the police reaction to the Golders Green attack and his repost of a guillotine t-shirt referencing Nigel Farage, saw the party decline in the opinion polls.

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