‘The real deal’: Sagal Abdi-Wali’s journey from child refugee to Labour MP in former PM’s seat

For Sagal Abdi-Wali, the new MP for Holborn and St Pancras, being elected to replace Keir Starmer in the north London constituency is “deeply personal”, she said in her acceptance speech.The 43-year-old has lived in the area since the 1990s when, as a seven-year-old, she fled war-torn Somalia with her mother and four brothers, eventually settling in Gospel Oak in Camden, which largely falls within the constituency. Her journey from refugee to member of parliament was one which she hoped would inspire “people who look like me”, she said. “This is Camden and this is Britain.”If she represents many in the diverse and youthful neighbourhood, however, Abdi-Wali is also very much a Labour party insider. Decades of volunteering in the community dovetailed with many years of active local party politics, even before she was elected to the borough council in 2022. She became the Labour cabinet member responsible for housing two years later, and in May was elected the first Black female leader of Camden council. She also chaired the local constituency party for four years.Zack Polanski, second left, applauds Sagal Abdi-Wali, as she is announced winner in the byelection. Photograph: James Veysey/ShutterstockThose deep party and community roots help explain how Abdi-Wali was selected from a long list of more than 100 to fight the seat for Labour after Starmer’s resignation last month, say friends – and were also key in seeing off the challenge from the Green party leader, Zack Polanski.“She genuinely is deeply rooted in so many different parts of the constituency,” says a close friend who was involved in her campaign. “I suppose all MPs like to think they are, but with Sagal it is the real deal.byelection results graphic“There’s a real community connection there, [and] I think the Green party and Zack Polanski underestimated how energetic and big the Labour campaign was going be. I don’t think they knew that those very deep roots in the constituency existed.“That’s the thing about a byelection, you only have four weeks. So if those roots are already there, you’ve got a huge, huge head start.”Labour’s win, Greens’ sudden crisis and the impossible lives of Londoners – videoTulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for neighbouring Hampstead and Highgate, agrees: “Her love of Camden is so obvious, and people really value that. She’s very caring, very local, and she genuinely seems to have a passion for politics and public service.”After “lots of flat candidates” in the past, Siddiq says, “people like a bit of passion.”It was walking past increasing numbers of homeless people in King’s Cross in the austerity years of the 2010s that encouraged Abdi-Wali to become more active in party politics, perhaps unsurprisingly given her own background. “It was only when I was old enough to look back and think about it in a philosophical way,” she has said, that she noticed “my mum was always looking after us and made our lives nice, serene … whether we were in a refugee camp or temporary housing.”Sagal Abdi-Wali with Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour party, poses for a selfie with supporters. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/GettyHomelessness and housing would be one of her priorities as an MP, she said in her acceptance speech on Friday morning, as would calling for Thames Water to be brought into public ownership and working to increase access to jobs and apprenticeships for young people – all causes that chime with Andy Burnham, too.Abdi-Wali has long been involved in community groups working with young people, including being a governor of several schools and founding football clubs where she still plays regularly and is “pretty aggressive on the pitch”, according to her close friend. (She is also an “ardent” Spurs fan, the friend says, “which may count against her in the [Arsenal-dominated] constituency”.)‘We didn’t get it over the line’: Green party’s Zack Polanski on byelection loss – videoHousing is one issue where she has faced some criticism; Abdi-Wali was the cabinet member in charge of the borough’s housing when in November 2024 the housing ombudsman published a damning report calling the council’s service rude, defensive and inadequate. Friends point out that she had been in the post for only six months and defend her record in the period she was in charge of the brief.Abdi-Wali also shrugged off a tweet when she was selected by Reform’s Zia Yusuf , which Labour representatives swiftly called “clearly racist” and was condemned even by other senior Reform figures.“I rang her and said: ‘Are you OK?’” says Sidiq. “I wanted to reassure her that we were there for her. But she said: “‘No, I feel very resilient about it. It’s made me even more determined to get on and do it.’”