Can Zack Polanski win Keir Starmer's old seat?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Emily Maitlis** (0:05)
I do think that if Zack Polanski had refused to stand without an extraordinarily good reason, which right now escapes me, then that would have kind of been the end of him. And I also think that if he stands and loses, then it is probably the end of him as the Green Party leader.

**Jon Sopel** (0:21)
There are enormous swings happen in by-elections. It just feels that sometimes you get a sense that there is a party with enormous momentum, it's unstoppable and they are going to win a by-election. Given the summer that the Green Party has had, it does not feel that they have that momentum.

**Lewis Goodall** (0:37)
He will argue and say, I think, send a message to this government, which doesn't much like London and doesn't much care for London. And if he were to win or come really close, then that would change the whole calculus of the Burnham government.

**Emily Maitlis** (0:50)
This is a real test actually for whether Zack Polanski survives the next bit of this political cycle.

**Lewis Goodall** (0:57)
So I think either way, this is high stakes.

**Jon Sopel** (1:15)
That was from a video posted last night by Zack Polanski, who today has announced that he hopes to be the candidate to fight Keir Starmer's old seat in North London.

**Emily Maitlis** (1:28)
So has Andy Burnham managed to solidly win back disillusioned progressives and see off the greens?
Or will this define the electoral landscape now of the left? Welcome to The News Agents.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:46)
The News Agents.

**Jon Sopel** (1:48)
It's televisions Jon Sopel.

**Emily Maitlis** (1:53)
How we laugh. Will you explain that in a moment? No, we're not. Yes, we are. Jon, it turns out.
Jon is moonlighting on a Sunday morning. What a terrible time to moonlight.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:03)
Well, an absolute quizzling.
No, but it's good to have the support of your colleagues. That's fine. You're going to need a very good producer on Sunday to not make mistakes like that, but it's all right.

**Emily Maitlis** (2:12)
I haven't had one in a long time, have I? Yeah, no, no. Right, it's Maitlis.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:14)
And it's Lewis.

**Jon Sopel** (2:16)
I'm not saying another word now.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:18)
As Jon was talking about, initially incorrectly, Zack Polanski has confirmed this morning that he will stand in Keir Starmer's. Now, old seat of Hoban and St. Pancras. He had long, this was basically the big question when Starmer announced it on Monday, pretty unhelpfully for Andy Burnham, setting up the first by-election of Burnham's tenure in what could be pretty fertile territory for the Green Party. The instant speculation was whether Polanski would stand or not. He had previously said that he wanted to stand in a London constituency and that if one became vacant, then he would contest it. Of course, it's not necessarily the most comfortable timing, even though it is comfortable terrain, because since the Green High Water Mark, the Zenith earlier in the year, Andy Burnham, since he's become Prime Minister, has been taking Green votes and now they're about 8 or 9 percent or so. And on paper, Keir Starmer's old constituency of Hobart and St. Pancras is and should be a pretty safe Labour seat. Luke Trillipolster has given us his assessment of the constituency. Just listen to this.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:19)
This was already going to be a fascinating by-election, because of what it would have told us about the electoral battle for the left of British politics. Those disillusioned progressives who had left the Labour Party under Keir Starmer and who had started voting Green, had Andy Burnham really attracted them back, which meant that seats like Hobart and St. Pancras, traditionally safe Labour seats, were now firmly back in the Labour column. Had the Green Party leader, Zack Polanski's missteps, permanently eroded the party's momentum and mojo, it was going to be a marquee race. But Zack Polanski himself saying he's standing in the contest really does change everything. If you want proof of that, you just have to look at some of the other contests this year.
The maker for your by-election on every partisan or demographic measure, that should have been a reform game, and yet Andy Burnham upended the contest. If we look at Clapton, obviously that was unusual in that it wasn't contested by the main parties. But the fact that 22,000 people turned out to vote for Nigel Farage in the middle of summer, and actually 10,000 people turned out the other way, almost 10,000 to vote for Count Binvace, shows you again the power of having a particular candidate in a local by-election.