Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali won on 8 October by 3,364 votes on a 38.76% turnout. Which ten Camden wards were in the seat, and what changes for the council now.

The Commons ordered a new writ for Holborn and St Pancras on Monday afternoon. That started a legal clock that cannot be stopped or slowed. The by-election must now be held between Tuesday 6 October and Wednesday 14 October.

Camden Council has not said which of those days it will be. Its upcoming elections page carried a single line when we checked it on Tuesday: information about the by-election “will be posted here”.

For most residents the date is not the urgent part. The registration deadline is, and it arrives sooner than people expect. Register by Friday 18 September and no possible polling day can catch you out.

Update, 12 September 2026: the notice of election has been published and polling day is Thursday 8 October. The registration deadline is 11.59pm on Tuesday 22 September, four days later than the safe date given below, and nominations close at 4pm on Tuesday 15 September. Every confirmed deadline is in our report on the notice of election.

Updated 11 October: the by-election is over. Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali won on 8 October with 12,292 votes to the Green leader Zack Polanski’s 8,928, a majority of 3,364 on a 38.76 per cent turnout. The full result, every candidate’s votes and what it means for Camden Council.

Updated 3 October: every registration, postal and proxy deadline has now passed. Polls open 7am to 10pm on Thursday 8 October. Three polling stations have moved: RADA Studios voters go to the Chamber, 12 Bloomsbury Square; London Irish Centre voters go to St Paul’s Church, Camden Square; and Castlehaven Community Centre voters go to Castlehaven Community Hub, 21 Castlehaven Road. Postal votes can be handed in at any Camden polling station or the Town Hall on Judd Street until 10pm, and a lost or spoilt postal pack can be replaced until 5pm on polling day (Camden Council, 23 September).

Timeline showing the by-election dates fixed by the writ: the Commons ordered the writ on 7 September, the writ counts as received on 8 September, the notice of election is due by 4pm on 10 September, nominations close between 11 and 17 September, and polling day must fall between 6 and 14 October.
Graphic by Camden Today
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How the seat fell vacant

Sir Keir Starmer left the Commons on 1 September 2026. Parliament’s own record of his career gives the reason as “Resignation (Chiltern)” and the end date as that day. He had held the seat since 7 May 2015.

MPs cannot simply resign. They take an office of profit under the Crown, which disqualifies them. HM Treasury published the notice that evening: the Chancellor of the Exchequer “has this day appointed Sir Keir Starmer to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern”, timed at 7.28pm on 1 September.

The writ followed six days later. The Commons record for Monday 7 September shows the order made without debate, moved by the Labour MP Anneliese Midgley, for the Speaker to issue his warrant “for the electing of a Member to serve in the present Parliament for the Borough Constituency of Holborn and St Pancras”.

What the timetable has already fixed

The rules are in the parliamentary elections timetable at Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983. At a by-election the writ counts as received the day after the warrant is dated, so the clock started on Tuesday 8 September. Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays are disregarded throughout.

That leaves the returning officer these limits:

  • the notice of election must be published by 4pm on the second day after the writ is received, which is Thursday 10 September
  • nominations close on a day the returning officer chooses, no earlier than the third day after that notice and no later than the seventh day after the writ was received, so between Friday 11 and Thursday 17 September
  • polling day is also the returning officer’s choice, and must be the 17th, 18th or 19th day after nominations close

Work those limits through and only seven days are possible: 6, 7, 8 or 9 October, or 12, 13 or 14 October. By-elections are normally held on a Thursday, but nothing in the timetable requires one.

Nine Camden wards are not in this seat

Camden is divided between two constituencies and only one of them votes. The composition is set out in Schedule 1 to The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023.

Ten Camden wards are in Holborn and St Pancras and do vote:

  • Bloomsbury
  • Camden Square
  • Camden Town
  • Haverstock
  • Holborn & Covent Garden
  • Kentish Town North
  • Kentish Town South
  • King’s Cross
  • Regent’s Park
  • St Pancras & Somers Town

Nine Camden wards are in Hampstead and Highgate and do not vote:

  • Belsize
  • Fortune Green
  • Frognal
  • Gospel Oak
  • Hampstead Town
  • Highgate
  • Kilburn
  • South Hampstead
  • West Hampstead

Primrose Hill ward is split between the two. The Order puts polling district TB in Holborn and St Pancras, and polling districts TA and TC in Hampstead and Highgate. The line between them is defined by a Boundary Commission for England map published on 28 June 2023 rather than by any street you can see, so anyone in that ward who is unsure should ask Camden’s electoral services team on 020 7974 4444 which polling district covers their address.

Hampstead and Highgate also takes in the Highgate ward of Haringey, which is outside Camden altogether.

The seat, by the last figures for it

Holborn and St Pancras was contested on its current boundaries for the first time in 2024. The House of Commons Library’s record of that result gives:

  • an electorate of 71,300
  • a turnout of 54.1 per cent
  • 12 candidates
  • a Labour majority of 11,572, or 30.0 per cent
  • 18,884 votes for Starmer, 48.9 per cent of the valid vote, down 17.3 points on the notional 2019 result

The second-placed candidate was the independent Andrew Feinstein on 7,312 votes.

Why 18 September is the date to work to

Applications to register close on the 12th working day before the poll. Camden applied that rule at the local elections in May: its notice of election, dated 23 March, set the poll for 7 May and the registration deadline for 11.59pm on Monday 20 April, which is the 12th working day before it.

Apply the same count here and the deadline moves with the polling day:

  • if the poll is on the earliest possible day, Tuesday 6 October, registration closes on Friday 18 September
  • if the poll is on the latest possible day, Wednesday 14 October, registration closes on Monday 28 September

There is nothing to gain by waiting to find out which. Registering takes about five minutes at gov.uk and you will need your National Insurance number. Camden accepts paper applications at Electoral Services, Crowndale Centre, 218 Eversholt Street, NW1 1BD.

The same May notice sets the pattern for the other deadlines: postal vote applications closed on the 11th working day before the poll, and proxy votes and Voter Authority Certificates on the 6th. The exact dates for this by-election will be in the notice of election, due by Thursday.

Three things that catch people out

EU citizens cannot vote in this one. Camden’s own guidance is blunt: “Eligible registered EU citizens resident in the UK cannot vote in UK Parliament elections.” Plenty of EU citizens in the borough voted in the council elections in May. A parliamentary by-election is a different franchise. Camden sets out the difference on its voting and candidacy rights for EU citizens page.

You need photo ID at the polling station, and a Freedom Pass counts. Camden’s voter ID page lists a passport, a UK or EEA driving licence including a provisional, an EEA national identity card, a biometric residence permit, a PASS card, a Blue Badge, an Oyster 60+ card and a Freedom Pass. Two details save wasted journeys: an expired document is accepted if the photo still looks like you, and a document showing an old address is fine, because staff are checking your face and not where you live. Without accepted ID you will not be allowed to vote, and the free Voter Authority Certificate has its own deadline inside this timetable.

Replying to the annual canvass is not the same as registering. Camden’s canvass is running now and closes on 30 November, with the revised register published on 1 December, which is weeks after this by-election. The canvass confirms who lives at an address. Anyone new who is named on the form is then invited to register, and that separate step is the one that puts them on the register in time to vote.

What it means for you

  • Check the ward lists above. If your ward is in the second list, you have no vote in this election, whatever the leaflets through your door suggest.
  • If your ward is in the first list, register by Friday 18 September and you are covered whichever day the council picks.
  • If you want a postal vote, apply as soon as the notice of election names the deadline, and do not leave it to the last day.
  • If you live in Primrose Hill ward, check which polling district you are in before you assume either way.
  • Nobody is a candidate yet in any official sense. The list becomes real only when the statement of persons nominated is published, which the timetable requires within 24 hours of nominations closing.

The MP this election returns does not run bin rounds, parking or council tax. Camden Council does, and our pages on bin collection days, council tax bands and parking in Camden cover those.

Camden published its notice of election on 8 September and it names Thursday 8 October as polling day. The confirmed timetable, the nomination deadline and the photo ID rules are in our report on the notice of election.

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