// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Chris Mason: Polanski faces greatest crisis of his leadership so far
In the aftermath of a by-election, the focus is usually on the winner. Not this time.
Make no mistake, the new MP for Holborn and St Pancras in north London, Sagal Abdi-Wali, has quite the story to tell.
She arrived in the UK as a child refugee from Somalia in the 1990s, grew up locally in Camden, became a councillor four years ago, the council leader in May and is now Sir Keir Starmer's successor as the MP.
But in the offices of Camden Council at three o'clock this morning, the focus of the press pack, me included, was on Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, as we waited for the result.
This constituency has long been a safe Labour seat – the political home of the former prime minister and before that the former cabinet minister Frank Dobson. So a Labour victory here falls in the column marked "relief" for Downing Street rather than "jubilation".
Nonetheless, the Greens did very well in local elections in London in May, riding the crest of a political wave which began shortly after Polanski became the party's leader just over a year ago.
His failure to win here would have prompted questions from some about stalling momentum, but the party can and does point to the big swing to them since the general election and a result that was by a long way the second best ever result for them at a Westminster by-election.
Incidentally, in finishing third the Conservatives have beaten Reform UK for the first time in an English by-election since the general election. It seems likely that Reform's result was hampered by Restore Britain, who managed almost half as many votes as Reform did, in a constituency not very favourable to either party.
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