The King of the North triumphing in the South, vanquishing his Green challenger, is ballot box proof that British politics has turned upside down during eight months of Harold Wilson’s long weeks and Harold Macmillan’s unpredictable events.
So Andy Burnham is entitled to savour Labour ’s onetime child refugee Sagal Abdi-Wali comfortably vanquishing upstart Zack Polanski in a potentially tricky by-election in London’s Holborn and St Pancras after ousted Keir Starmer quit the seat in a huff.
Because Labour’s prospects are genuinely transformed under a likeable new Prime Minister who detoxified a tainted party and is earning the trust and regathering the votes of people with good values yearning for decent change.
We know Polanski gambled his own reputation on taking the Labour seat because the Green Party leader thought, indeed initially expected, to come out on top and be the constituency’s MP before he retired to bed after a gruelling night.
Ever since the Greens sensationally snatched Gordon and Denton from Labour in both his and Burnham’s Greater Manchester backyard, upbeat Polanski strutted the country like the Cock o’ the North.
Today his feathers are clipped, if he’s not yet a feather duster, after the leader of eco warriors more deep red than green failed to outflank Burnham from the Left by championing rent controls and water renationalisation.
The poisonous anti-semitism row engulfing the sole Jewish head of a British national party is raising serious questions about his leadership, predecessor-but-one and former Brighton MP Caroline Lucas coming close to suggesting he should quit.
But the pivotal moment in our country’s politics was Burnham’s Makerfield victory last June swiftly followed by a bloodless coup to replace Starmer in No 10.
Holborn underlined that folk are prepared to give Burnham a chance, Labour top of the polls albeit in an era of fractured, volatile, unpredictable era where small swings either way determine glorious victory or crushing defeat.
Scandal-stained Nigel Farage and sleazy Reform’s bandwagon are suddenly rolling backwards on the Hard Right, public revulsion over funds whose source has been questioned and vile extremism peeling away people once prepared to give them a chance.
Now the Green bubble is badly pricked, Polanski’s party deflating rapidly and in danger of actually bursting apart over an ideological split not over the climate crisis but Palestine and Israel.
How ironic the charismatic frontman for a party triggering a seismic racism row lost in North London to a great British success story whose personal support was bolstered by backfiring Reform racism.
Turnout was low yet Labour’s vote sharing dipping just 3.7% to 45.2% on the 2024 General Election and Polanski’s up only 3.5% to 32.8% from that contest’s combined Green and Gaza-independent (and Polanski endorser) Andrew Feinstein’s total in the end produced a 12.4% winning margin that wasn’t even close.
We’ll discover soon enough whether Kemi Badenoch betting the Tory house on inherited wealth pays off on the Right for her against Reform. On and from the Left, Burnham and Labour are ascendant. Bruised Polanski and the Greens may struggle to grow again.
