General Election 2024: Holborn and St Pancras candidates

A total of 12 candidates are fighting for the seat, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who could become the UK's next Prime Minister.

The Holborn and St Pancras constituency covers most of Camden borough, including the two wards that give it its name, as well as Bloomsbury, Regent's Park, Camden Square, Camden Town, Haverstock, Covent Garden, Kentish Town North, Kentish Town South, King's Cross, Somers Town, and part of Primrose Hill.

To help you make your decision when you go to the polls on July 4, we have put together a guide explaining who the candidates are, in alphabetical order, what they stand for, and what their three top priorities are.

Charlie Clinton - Liberal Democrat

Charlie Clinton is standing for the Liberal Democrats (Image: Charlie Clinton is standing for the Liberal Democrats)

I'm running for Parliament because of climate change.

If we can't tackle climate change all of our other challenges will only get worse, but we must do that while creating a fairer, more prosperous society which works for everyone by removing the barriers holding people back, including by fixing the NHS and creating a fairer housing market.

I also firmly believe that the first step must be to fix politics: delivering more stable, representative government through voting reform, and by devolving more power to the nations, regions and councils that make up the United Kingdom.

I am running in Holborn & St Pancras because I have personal connections to the area and was determined that someone should stand up to Keir Starmer - promoting liberal, progressive values - including closer ties with the EU.

Professionally I work in digital and tech, most recently with a focus on promoting sustainable living. I understand both sustainability and AI and I am passionate about promoting and building a modern, green economy.

Finally I'm also a part time musician and I'm running an ongoing campaign to save the future of music – by offering a fairer deal for grassroots venues and working musicians.

Nick 'The Flying Brick' Delves - Monster Raving Loony Party

Nick The Incredible Flying Brick is standing for the Raving Monster Loony Party (Image: Nick The Incredible Flying Brick)

Independence Day!

I am Nick the Incredible Flying Brick and this is my 13th attempt to take a seat in Parliament. I will be lucky this time!

I love being in the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and since a paragliding accident have been ‘shadow minister for the abolition of gravity'.

I live in a ‘lost world’ in a remote part of Derbyshire where pterodactyls swirl round my window and I write poetry.

I am mainly a single-issue politician but also have a wide range of other policies for Camden and the wider Holborn & St Pancras constituency.

1. Tourism. The whole constituency will be developed into an intergalactic space port with Bloomsbury and Highgate being respectively arrival and departure lounges.

2. Immigration. Empty return flights from Rwanda will be filled with silverback gorillas for recruitment into the Metropolitan Police.

3 Environmental. Fishing and wild swimming will be made spectator sports by introducing piranha into Hampstead Heath's ponds.

4. All remaining gold reserves will be placed on the last race at Kempton Park in a bid to reduce the national debt.

5. The Loony Party would issue fifty trillion pounds of quantitative easing and give all voters free lunch, crumpets and beer.

It is time to have a radical rethink! A poem for the voters of Holborn & St Pancras.

‘A Flying Brick’

Not carrot or stick

In Camden they cry

On the fourth of July

‘Vote for the loony Nick!’

Andrew Feinstein - Independent

Andrew Feinstein is standing as an Independent candidate in Holborn and St Pancras (Image: Steve Eason)

I’ve lived in Camden for over 22 years with my family and was chosen by members of the community to run as an Independent MP because of my moral values and experience fighting for an economy that works for people, not corporations.

The Tories have ensured spiralling living costs and gutted our public services. Both Tories and Labour choose to squeeze working people as the super-rich get richer. They refuse to tax the wealthy, protect the NHS from further privatisation, or bring in rent caps. Keir Starmer has shown his values by not voting for a ceasefire in Gaza. Voting for him will change nothing.

I fought against Apartheid in my native South Africa and served in Nelson Mandela’s government as an MP. I founded an organisation investigating corruption in the global arms trade. I’ve revealed how our tax money is used to fund weapons, while we’re left with the rising cost of rent, food, and bills.

As an Independent candidate, I’ll listen to local people, not billionaires. I’ll work for more and improved social housing, funding for our public services, and against racism and wars. It’s an honour to serve my community and hope to earn your vote on Thursday, July 4.

My top priorities are:

1. Fight against wasteful spending and corruption and channel our money back into public services.
2. Introduce rent controls, end no-fault evictions and restore funding for social housing.
3. Roll back NHS privatisation, improve staff conditions and increase access to NHS dental services.

Wais Islam - Independent

Wais Islam is standing as an Independent (Image: Wais Islam)

I’m a former Respect/Labour councillor, Olympics ambassador and chairman of the pensions and investments committee in Tower Hamlets; 48, and born in Southwark like Sir Keir Starmer.

I set up the Camden Gaza Ceasefire Campaign with locals in October 2023 following Israel’s war on Gaza.

I’ve been uniting residents to demand Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which he rejected despite national protests.

Thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians (mostly women and children) have been killed by Israeli military action, which was against international law. Israel is now on trial at the International Court of Justice. Holborn and St Pancras residents and the Camden Gaza Ceasefire Campaig decided to select me as their independent parliamentary candidate in November 2023 when no other independent candidate had declared or worked with Camden’s minority ethnic groups. 

I’ve worked tirelessly to bring together Camden residents and locals of minority ethnic groups who comprise far more than half the forecast Labour votes of, say, 25,000 due to Gaza and a new boundary change.

If we all withhold our votes and combine tactical voting to challenge Starmer by redirecting the votes to elect me as the people’s choice it will most definitely cause Starmer to lose his seat. It’s a no brainer.

Holborn and St Pancras residents need a truly principled independent parliamentarian such as myself who will not rejoin Labour again. 

My three priorities:

1. End War on Gaza / Free Palestine; 
2. Improving public services such as housing, health and education, HS2 pollution etc
3. Rejoin EU to combat inflation whilst boosting UK economy and tourism eg via St Pancras International which connects us to Europe including The Hague

Senthil Kumar - Independent

The Ham & High was unable to find contact details for Senthil Kuma. If Mr Kumar would like to be included, he is welcome to get in touch.

Mehreen Malik - Conservative

Mehreen Malik is standing for the Conservative Party (Image: Mehreen Malik)

Just looking around Holborn and St Pancras you can see how Labour has failed local people.

Overcrowding, dirty streets and people worried about being mugged close to their homes.

Sir Keir and Labour have failed this constituency. I fear that if they win they will have their ethos of failure inflicted on a national scale.

I am a strong advocate for education and have been a school governor, mentored students and am a trustee for an organisation supporting children's education.

I have worked in the sustainability sector, have experience with green finance and am a champion of green policies.

My pro bono work as a lawyer had led me to work with charities and business across London focusing on areas of diversity and inclusion, charitable giving and community volunteering.

I have wider international experience, having enjoyed a period at the Secretariat of the United Nations, UNAIDS and the Youth Commission for Human Rights.

My three priorities:

1. Protecting our green spaces
2. The housing crisis demands action
3. Fighting crime in Holborn and St Pancras

John Poynton - UK Independence Party

John Poynton is standing for UKIP (Image: John Poynton)

I don’t expect to win this seat and that is not why I am standing. UKIP aims to influence others by putting forward a range to policies which we believe are essential to the future peace and prosperity of this country, but which no other party is proposing.
 
My top three priorities for the constituency are the same as those for the country:
 

1. Eliminating the enormous trade deficit we have with the EU in order to regenerate economic growth, 
2. Ending mass immigration for a whole range of reasons, including creating the conditions for full employment so that ordinary people can get higher wages, better employment terms and conditions and so that those who find it difficult to find work find greater demand for their skills.
3. Solving the housing crisis. This requires a range of actions which you can find on my website, and builds on my past experience as finance director at Paddington Churches Housing Association; at the time the fourth largest in London, with several hundred tenancies in Camden.

David Roberts - Reform Party

The Ham & High was unable to contact Mr Roberts. If he would like to be included, he is welcome to get in touch.

Tom Scripps - Socialist Equality Party

Tom Scripps standing for the Social Equality Party (Image: Tom Scripps)

I’m the assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP).

I’ve been a member of the SEP for over a decade — joining in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash — and have since published hundreds of articles of Marxist commentary and analysis on the World Socialist Web Site.

I’ve played a leading role in the organisation as a campaigner for the freedom of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange, held in the UK’s Belmarsh maximum security prison.

We’re standing in this election to oppose the genocide in Gaza, warn of the danger of the war in Ukraine spiralling into a direct conflict between NATO and Russia, and build a revolutionary leadership in the working class to fight against war, deepening austerity and attacks on democratic rights.

Workers and young people must break with the right-wing, warmongering Labour Party and take part in the construction of their own socialist party.

Our campaign has run in parallel with that of our sister parties, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei in Germany in the European elections, and the Socialist Equality Party in the United States in the presidential elections.

We advocate the same international perspective to confront capitalist crises which have no purely national solution.

Our slogans in this election are:

• No to the Gaza genocide and NATO war against Russia!  
• Fight for a socialist alternative to Starmer’s Labour Party!  
• Build a socialist anti-war movement!
   

Bobby 'Elmo' Smith - Independent

The Ham & High was unable to contact Mr Smith. If he would like to be included, he is welcome to get in touch.

David Stansell - Green Party

David Stansell is standing for the Green Party (Image: David Stansell)

I have been a Camden resident for 30 years. Having had a long career in the private sector, I began to feel a need to give back. After becoming vice chair and governor of a special educational needs provision in Haringey and chair of Camden Green Party, I am now standing as your parliamentary candidate in Holborn and St Pancras.

While I love living in this wonderful community, I feel that the country has stagnated. I am deeply concerned by the terrible injustices we see from conflict and rampant inequality as well as the changes in our weather and wider environment. A general sense of dislocation dominates our lives, and I feel that by rebuilding our connections with each other and the environment, we can go a long way to addressing these problems. Only the Green Party can provide the platform for real hope and real change that our country so desperately needs.

My three priorities:

Sometimes you have to invest to save; if elected I will focus on:

1. Investing to save our terrible housing stock, making it healthier, cheaper to heat and greener, too.
2. Investing to save our NHS and Social care. Social care, including mental health care is in a terrible crisis and by fixing this we can help to unblock hospital waiting lists and many other services besides.
3. Investing to save our environment through better public transport, more active travel and cleaner heating.

Sir Keir Starmer - Labour

Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to keep his seat and run the country

Sir Keir Starmer could not be contacted at the time of publication. The following is from his constituency website:

I’m a husband, father, and former Chief Prosecutor. My entire career has been about securing justice and change for those that need it.

From representing people on death row as a human rights lawyer, to working on setting up the Northern Ireland Police Board in the wake of the Good Friday agreement, to making the law work for victims as Chief Prosecutor. I am determined to make sure organisations work for the people they are supposed to serve.

I grew up in a small town called Oxted, in Surrey. My dad worked as a toolmaker in a factory, and my mum was a nurse for the NHS.

Like many families, we faced challenges. My mum battled a rare, severe illness for all her life.

Despite the difficulties we faced, I was hugely influenced by my mother’s courage and determination to live her life despite her illness. It also gave me a deep gratitude for our NHS.

After I qualified as a lawyer in 1987, I began work as a barrister.I spent a lot of my time providing free legal advice defending people against the powerful, working on high-profile cases and taking on fights against the odds with Shell and McDonald’s.

From private practice I moved to Northern Ireland, spending five years as the legal advisor to the new Northern Ireland Policing Board.

In 2008, I became Director of Public Prosecutions. During that time there were big cuts to public services. I had to reform the service to make sure it still delivered the justice people rightly expect of the system.

My Labour Party offers the change our country needs. Not just reassurance that it will be ok, but hope. There is a better future for Britain.