Good morning and welcome to our UK politics live blog. Polls have opened in Keir Starmer’s old seat in Holborn and St Pancras, where Green party leader Zack Polanski is hoping to break Labour’s longstanding grip in the north London constituency.

Current Projections

Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali is projected to retain the seat in today’s byelection, but the party shouldn’t take victory for granted. According to Peter Walker, the Guardian’s senior political correspondent, Polanski has mounted an intensive campaign. However, the scale of the challenge is evident from the numbers:

  • Starmer won the seat by 11,500 votes in 2024.
  • Labour had majorities of nearly 28,000 in 2019 and more than 30,500 in 2017.