Zack Polanski has been chosen as the Green Party's candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, setting up what he describes as a two-horse race with Labour in the seat vacated by Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as an MP. The contest, to be held on 8 October, will be an early test of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's popularity, as the historically safe Labour seat has seen growing support for the Greens and independents in recent years.

Polanski, a London Assembly member, won the local party's nomination in an online members' vote on Thursday, beating councillor Hamza Chowdhury. He faces Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali, leader of Camden Council, in a seat Labour has held since its creation in 1983 and which has had only two MPs, Frank Dobson and Starmer. The Greens gained council seats in Camden in May's local elections, rising from one councillor to ten, while Abdi-Wali has faced racist criticism from Reform UK's Zia Yusuf over her birth in Somalia, which Polanski condemned as "despicable".