As ever, among all the noise triggered by Labour holding the seat of Holborn and St Pancras, the most plain-spoken and undeniable analysis was provided by that sage and national treasure John Curtice, of Strathclyde University. The result, he said, echoed national opinion polls, and reflected two undeniable facts: that the Greens are in need of a period of contrition and reflection, and Labour ought to be slightly less than ecstatic.

Andy Burnham’s party, with a majority of 3,364, he said, showed they “are in a much better position than they were six months ago, but still not as popular as they were in 2025”. The Greens, meanwhile, remain “a more significant player than historically they have ever been”, but have lost much of the ground they gained during Zack Polanski’s first year as leader, when the serial failures of the local MP – one Keir Starmer – provided him and his party with such a glorious succession of political opportunities.

Do not forget: the Greens’ success earlier this year in Gorton and Denton played a massive part in Starmer eventually leaving the political stage, and the man he barred from being the Labour candidate snatching his job. But now? Publicly, Polanski seems largely unrepentant about the “Zionism is racism” motion passed at his party conference, and confident he can resume where he left off. But his party’s claim that it tripled its previous vote share in the seat is very specious indeed: as the pollster Peter Kellner puts it, “the leftwing vote two years ago was divided between the Greens’ 10.4% and an independent, Andrew Feinstein’s, 18.9%. Together, they won 29.3%.” The true increase in the leftwing anti-Labour vote, therefore, is just 3.5 percentage points, and Polanski has thus taken such a significant blow that his experience of the next few weeks and months could be very choppy........

© The Guardian