Labour candidate selected to replace Keir Starmer in Holborn & St Pancras by-election
The leader of Camden council, who came to Britain as a child refugee, has been selected as the Labour candidate for the Holborn & St Pancras by-election.
Sagal Abdi-Wali was among three Camden councillors shortlisted to replace Sir Keir Starmer after he quit as an MP and forced a the poll in his London constituency.
Ms Abdi-Wali beat Nasrine Djemai, Camden council’s cabinet member for new homes and community investment, and finance chief Camron Aref-Adib to win the nomination.
After a selection meeting on Wednesday night, she said: “I am delighted that local members have put their trust in me to be Labour’s candidate in the area I’ve grown up in.
“This place welcomed my family as refugees and gave us hope when we needed it most. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to build a life here, serving our community as a councillor, school governor, and community activist. Now I am standing to say thank you and to give back the hope you gave me.
“Throughout this campaign, I promise to put our communities at the heart of everything I do, now and for the future. Together, we can make hope win.”
She is likely to face Zack Polanski in a tough contest to win the constituency.
The Green leader is favourite to be selected as the candidate for his party later this week but is facing a challenge from one of his own councillors, Hamza Chowdhury.
The Greens won 11 seats on Camden council at the local elections in May and party activists have already begun campaigning in the seat.
Sir Keir stepped down on September 1, just two months after being ousted from Number 10 by Andy Burnham.
Following weeks of speculation as to whether he would remain in Parliament, he told his local newspaper the Camden New Journal, that the "time is right" to "pass the baton" to a new MP.
Ms Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee from Somalia, came to Britain in the early 1990s to escape civil war and was first elected as a Labour councillor in 2022.
After she emerged as the frontrunner for the candidacy following Sir Keir’s resignation, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf made a comment on social media, which was quickly criticised across the political spectrum for being “racist”.
Mr Yusuf wrote: “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia. Do you understand what's happening?”
During an interview on Sky News, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds condemned Yusuf's remarks as "pretty straightforward racism", noting how Ms Abdi-Wali arrived in the UK as a child and has spent her career working to better the lives of those in her local community.