On yer bike, Zack! Green leader Polanski won't live in Keir Starmer's former seat if he wins by-election because he can 'cycle really quickly' from home in fashionable East London

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 07:18 EDT, 7 September 2026 | Updated: 07:22 EDT, 7 September 2026 Zack Polanski has said he won't live in his new constituency if he wins a Westminster by-election next month, but will commute from his fashionable East London home instead.The Green leader is hoping to become the party's candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer as MP for Holborn and St Pancras in a vote expected next month. But he plans to remain living in trendy Hackney if he wins and ride his bike across the capital to the North London seat.'I can cycle to the constituency really quickly. In fact, the length of the constituency is just as fast for me to cycle,' he told The Guardian while campaigning at the weekend.'I'd regularly be here, doing surgeries and representing people.' But it will raise questions about how committed he is to winning the seat, at a time when his candidacy has been questioned internally.This morning local councillor Hamza Choudhury announced he was standing to be the Green candidate with a blast at politicians 'you'll only see on a leaflet'.'We don't need another MP who arrives during an election campaign, puts out a few leaflets, makes a few promises and disappears once the votes are counted no matter how famous they are,' he wrote on Instagram. The Green leader is hoping to become the party's candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer as MP for in Holborn and St Pancras in a vote expected next month But he plans to remain living in trendy Hackney if he wins and ride his bike across the capital to the North London seat (pictured speaking to the Mail in 2020)'We need an MP who is present, accessible and visibly part of the community all year round.'Mr Polanski is yet to have been formally selected by local party members, with reports suggesting splits among Green Party activists about whether they should instead choose an explicitly pro-Gaza candidate for the race.Former prime minister Sir Keir announced he would quit as an MP as Parliament returned from its summer recess, despite having previously insisted he would stay on as a backbencher until the next general election.Only Labour has represented Holborn and St Pancras since the seat was created in 1983: former health secretary Frank Dobson from then until 2015, then Sir Keir.At the most recent general election in 2024, the former PM held the seat with 48.9 per cent of the vote, ahead of independent candidate Andrew Feinstein in second place on 18.9 per cent and the Greens in third on 10.4 per cent.But Mr Feinstein, who ran on a pro-Palestinian ticket, has said he will not run again in the by-election, which could provide a boost to the Greens.