The Conservatives have selected former Camden councillor Ewan Cameron as their candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on 8 October, placing a familiar local name in a contest created by Sir Keir Starmer’s departure from the Commons.
The appointment gives Kemi Badenoch an operative with deep roots in north-west London, but Cameron’s limited success in his most recent election will leave the party seeking to turn local experience into a broader campaign message.
A politically charged vacancy
The seat became vacant after Starmer stood down as an MP to take a role in international affairs. For the Conservatives, contesting the former prime minister’s constituency is an opportunity to claim a high-profile victory in London. For Labour, it is a test of whether Starmer’s personal popularity has left a durable base of support.
The Green Party’s entry adds another layer to the campaign, while Labour has put forward one of the most prominent figures in Camden’s local politics. The result will offer an early reading of the parties’ strengths in a constituency with clear national significance, even if the campaign remains intensely local at street level.
Cameron’s selection is therefore more than an administrative decision. It signals the Conservative Party’s attempt to present Badenoch’s leadership as refreshed, disciplined and capable of recruiting voters beyond its traditional base. The challenge for the campaign will be persuading people who do not already know him that his record is relevant to their immediate concerns.
Cameron’s Camden record
Cameron served as a councillor for the Belsize ward from 1998 to 2002 and sat on Camden Council’s development control committee. Those years give him a long local profile, although they also place his most recent electoral performance under scrutiny.
In the May borough elections, he stood in West Hampstead and finished 10th of 14 candidates with 376 votes. That was not a result that suggested an immediate surge in Conservative fortunes. It does, however, give the party a candidate who understands local government and has campaigned in the area before.
Cameron said he was “honoured” to have been selected. “This is the community where I have lived, raised my family and call home,” he said, making family ties and long-term residence central to his bid for support.
He then sought to tie his candidacy to Badenoch’s leadership and the party’s national policy agenda. “Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership the Conservative Party has changed, we have clear, fully costed plans to recruit 10,000 more police officers, scrap stamp duty on family homes and cut bills with our Cheap Power Plan.”
That is a demanding package to sell in a by-election. Police recruitment, housing costs and energy bills are all salient issues, but voters will judge whether the Conservative campaign can connect them convincingly to life in Holborn and St Pancras. Cameron’s closing message was straightforward: “That is the message I look forward to campaigning on over the coming weeks.”
Labour and the Greens set the pace
Cameron will face Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden Council, for Labour. The Green Party has nominated its national leader, Zack Polanski, creating a three-way contest in which each campaign must balance local grievances against the national political mood.
For Labour, the task is to retain the seat vacated by Starmer and prevent the by-election becoming a symbolic platform for Conservative recovery. Abdi-Wali’s position as council leader offers a strong local mandate, but it also exposes her to scrutiny over Camden’s services and finances. The party will need to keep attention focused on the constituency rather than allow the contest to become a referendum on Starmer alone.
The Greens face a different problem: translating national visibility into enough local support to challenge for the top spot. Polanski’s selection as party leader gives the campaign prominence, but a national profile does not automatically resolve the practical work of canvassing, doorsteps and local advocacy. The party will be measuring whether its campaign can convert attention into votes.
The Conservative challenge is equally demanding. Cameron must persuade voters that his years on Camden Council matter more than his modest result in May, while the party attempts to reposition itself under Badenoch. The selection gives the campaign continuity and local familiarity, but the coming weeks will determine whether that is enough to overcome the disadvantages of contesting a seat previously held by the prime minister.
The deadline that locks in the contest
Nominations close at 16:00 BST on Tuesday, fixing the final shape of the election and bringing the campaign into its definitive phase. From then, the contest moves from selection politics to voter persuasion: who can define the seat, who can reach the undecided and who can make a one-off by-election feel like a decision about the parties’ wider direction.
For Cameron, the immediate test is simple. He must turn a long local history into a credible mandate and persuade voters that the Conservative Party’s changed under Badenoch, not merely announced that it has. The result on 8 October will reveal whether that argument is enough.
Why it Matters
The Holborn and St Pancras by-election is an early test of whether the Conservatives can rebuild credibility in London under Kemi Badenoch after Starmer’s departure, while Labour must prove that the prime minister’s personal standing has left a lasting political foundation. Cameron’s selection offers the party a candidate with deep Camden roots, but his 376-vote result in May also exposes the distance it still has to travel. The outcome will be read as a barometer of national mood, local confidence and the competitive terrain all three parties face as they prepare for the next general election.