Labour has chosen Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali, a former Somali child refugee, as its candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, in a contest already shaping up as a fierce battle with the Green Party amid separate controversy over comments made by Reform UK.
A Somali refugee and council leader has been selected as Labour’s candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Sagal Abdi-Wali, leader of Camden Council, is Labour’s pick to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as MP for the London constituency, in a race scheduled for 8 October 2026 that gives the eventual winner only around a month to campaign following the selection process.
A political career rooted in Camden
Abdi-Wali’s candidacy carries a distinctly local dimension rather than reflecting a national figure being placed into Starmer’s former seat. She has lived in Camden for roughly 35 years, and has been involved in local community organisations for more than a decade, including work as a charity volunteer and trustee. She currently serves as a governor at two schools in the borough.
Before entering elected politics, Abdi-Wali worked in local government and community organisations, giving her a longer record of public service than her relatively recent election to Camden Council might otherwise suggest. She previously chaired the Holborn and St Pancras Constituency Labour Party, establishing a direct connection to the very seat she is now seeking to represent, and stood for Labour selection for the Barnet and Camden London Assembly seat in 2019. Although unsuccessful in that bid, she was endorsed at the time by Keir Starmer.
Rise to Camden Council leadership
Abdi-Wali was first elected to Camden Council in 2022, representing the Camden Square ward. Before becoming council leader, she served as Cabinet Member for Better Homes, with responsibility for council housing, repairs and neighbourhood services.
In May 2026, councillors elected her as leader of Camden Council, making her the first Black woman to hold the position in the borough’s history. Her victory in the relevant May 2026 council election was relatively close, with Abdi-Wali receiving 890 votes compared with 830 for the highest-polling Green candidate standing in Camden Square.
A crowded selection process
Labour received 96 applications for the by-election nomination before narrowing the field down to three candidates. The other two shortlisted contenders were Nasrine Djemai, Camden’s cabinet member for New Homes and Community Investment, and Rishi Madlani, a former Labour councillor and sustainable-finance professional.
A Labour-Green battleground
The Green Party is targeting the seat aggressively. Green leader Zack Polanski has announced his intention to contest the constituency, while Camden Green councillor Hamza Chowdhury has separately put himself forward for the Green nomination, suggesting the party may still need to settle on its own candidate before the by-election takes place.
The scale of the challenge facing Labour is underlined by recent electoral trends in the area. Starmer won Holborn and St Pancras at the 2024 general election with 18,884 votes and a majority of 11,572, with independent candidate Andrew Feinstein finishing second on 7,312 votes and the Greens third with 4,030. However, the May 2026 Camden local election results told a more competitive story: while Labour retained overall control of the council, its dominance was reduced considerably, with the Greens making substantial gains across the borough.
Controversy over Reform UK comments
Abdi-Wali’s candidacy has also become entangled in wider political controversy after Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, publicly questioned her candidacy by drawing attention to the fact that she was born in Somalia. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described Yusuf’s intervention as “pretty straightforward racism.”
The comments also caused unease within Reform UK itself. Reports suggested some figures in the party were unhappy that Yusuf’s remarks had overshadowed its wider political messaging, with some reportedly questioning whether party leader Nigel Farage should remove him from his role. Reform figures did not offer a unified response to the controversy: Laila Cunningham said she did not understand what Yusuf had meant by the comments, while former Conservative minister Nadine Dorries described the post as “nasty.”
A symbolic candidacy
Should she go on to win the seat, Abdi-Wali’s selection would place a former child refugee, who rose to become the first Black woman to lead Camden Council, on the ballot for a parliamentary seat that has been represented continuously by Labour for decades. Her deep roots in the constituency and surrounding borough, built over three and a half decades of local involvement, are likely to form a central part of Labour’s pitch to voters as it seeks to fend off a resurgent Green challenge in October.
