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Labour wins Holborn and St Pancras by-election as Green leader faces calls to resign

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Coverage spectrum

Covered by 3 outlets, mostly center (67%).

10 articles in total. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Sagal Abdi-Wali of Labour won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on Thursday, with about 45 per cent of the vote against 33 per cent for Green leader Zack Polanski, who finished second. Polanski has said he will stay on as leader. The leader of the Jewish Greens, Vivien Lichtenstein, has said he should resign, and former leader Caroline Lucas has criticised his leadership during a row over a party conference motion declaring Zionism a form of racism. Polanski was not at the conference when the motion was debated and passed, and he has said he would have voted against it.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, beating Green leader Zack Polanski, who finished second.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  2. Abdi-Wali took about 45 per cent of the vote and Polanski about 33 per cent.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  3. A party conference motion passed by members declared Zionism a form of racism.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  4. Polanski said he would stay on as Green leader after the by-election defeat.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  5. Vivien Lichtenstein, leader of the Jewish Greens, said Polanski should resign.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  6. Polanski said he was campaigning in Holborn and St Pancras during the conference debate and would have voted against the motion had he attended.

    One outletThe Guardian· Left

What is contested

Where accounts differ

Points the coverage does not agree on, and who says what.

  • Whether Polanski should resign as Green leader.

    Vivien Lichtenstein and Caroline Lucas say he should resign or has failed to show leadership; Polanski says he will stay on and that Green members will decide who leads them.

  • Whether the by-election result was a setback for the Greens.

    BBC and FT coverage presents the defeat as a crisis of leadership; Polanski says the party tripled its vote share and had its second best by-election result, and the Guardian’s analysis notes relief among the main contenders.

  • Whether Polanski’s absence from the conference debate reflects on his leadership.

    Critics including Caroline Lucas say he failed to show leadership by missing the debate; Polanski says he would have voted against the motion had he attended.

How each side tells it

Compare views

  • the left

    1 outlet

    The Guardian headlines mix relief for the Greens after the by-election loss, a call from the Jewish Greens leader for Polanski to resign, and a question about whether he has to go; all left coverage here comes from one outlet rated Left, and its headlines use strong words such as damaging row and seismic victory, the mirror of the center outlets’ crisis language.

    Greens must avoid ‘capture by extremists and racists’, says party MP
    The GuardianLeftAll left-leaning headlines

  • the center

    2 outlets

    BBC and Financial Times headlines frame the story as a leadership crisis for Polanski, centred on questions and criticism from within his party, with the BBC calling it the greatest crisis of his leadership and the FT asking whether he has blown it for the Greens.

    Green Party wants to make sure it is 'not vulnerable to extremists'
    BBC NewsCenterAll center headlines

  • the right

    No coverage yet

    No right-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

  • Left2

    damaging rowseismic victory

  • Center2

    greatest crisisQuestions remain

  • Right

    Has not covered this story.

In the outlets’ own words

  • Sensational language

    greatest crisisMore neutral: pressure over his response

    The phrase ranks the stakes above what the supplied coverage establishes, which is pressure over a response to a motion and a by-election loss.

    Polanski faces greatest crisis of his leadership so far

    Used byBBC News (Center)

  • Vague attribution

    Questions remainMore neutral: state the question and who is asking

    The writer is raising the question while pretending someone else did.

    Chris Mason: Questions remain for Green Party leader Zack Polanski

    Used byBBC News (Center)

  • Loaded modifier

    damaging rowMore neutral: row

    The adjective judges the row’s effect on the party before that effect is established.

    Pressure is building on the party leader after byelection defeat, a damaging row over Zionism and polls that show him less popular than Nigel Farage When Zack…

    Used byThe Guardian (Left)

  • Sensational language

    seismic victoryMore neutral: major victory

    The adjective inflates a single seat result into a dramatic turning point in the writer’s own voice.

    …of Hannah Spencer as the new Green MP for the Greater Manchester seat was a seismic victory, he continued: “I said we were here to replace Labour and this is what replacing…

    Used byThe Guardian (Left)

Words quoted from someone else (2)Hide the quoted words

Loaded words that outlets reported someone else saying. They show what was said, not how the outlet chose to say it.

  • Vague attribution

    Quoted

    questions remainMore neutral: state the question and who is asking

    The writer is raising the question while pretending someone else did.

    BBC Political Editor Chris Mason says questions remain for Green Party leader Zack Polanski over his position on a controversial motion…

    Quoted byBBC News (Center)

    Inside a quotation: the outlets are reporting someone else’s words.

  • Partisan shorthand

    Quoted

    Zionism is racismMore neutral: a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism

    The slogan form compresses the motion’s wording into a short label that carries its contested conclusion.

    Vivien Lichtenstein says party leader should stand down over ‘Zionism is racism’ policy after losing byelection UK politics live – latest updates The leader of…

    Quoted byThe Guardian (Left)

    Inside a quotation: the outlets are reporting someone else’s words.

See the full language guide

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

1 outlet

Leads with

  • relief and defiance after the by-election loss
  • Greens’ vote share gains and Polanski’s defence of his record
  • Jewish Greens leader’s call to resign
  • the motion’s call to replace Israel with a single Palestinian state

Leaves out

  • the Greens’ vote share rising about 22 per cent on the 2024 general election

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the headline from the leftHide the headlines

From the center

2 outlets

Leads with

  • leadership crisis and pressure on Polanski
  • criticism from party figures and calls to resign
  • the Zionism motion and his response to it
  • the by-election defeat

Leaves out

  • Polanski’s statement that he would have voted against the motion
  • Polanski’s claim that the party tripled its vote share

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the 2 headlines from the centerHide the headlines

From the right

0 outlets

No right-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

Articles you open from here build My Mix, a private picture of how your reading spreads across the spectrum, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    1 hr 46 min later

    Its first report, Oct 9, 2:40 AM EDT

  • Center

    First to report

    BBC News, Oct 9, 12:54 AM EDT

  • Right

    No report yet

    From the outlets Mantle follows

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. BBC NewsCenterOct 9, 12:54 AM EDT
  2. The GuardianLeftOct 9, 2:40 AM EDT
  3. Financial TimesCenterOct 9, 12:14 PM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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