Photo: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
Sir Keir Starmer has announced he is standing down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras after 11 years, triggering a by-election that will serve as the first electoral test of Andy Burnham's government since Starmer resigned as prime minister earlier in the summer. Starmer told the Camden New Journal it was the "right time" to leave the Commons to focus on international affairs, including defence, security, trade and technology.
Labour will almost certainly hold the seat. Starmer secured a majority of more than 11,000 votes at the 2024 general election, and the constituency has returned a Labour MP without interruption since it was created in 1983. No by-election date has been set yet - a date cannot be fixed until Starmer formally applies for the Chiltern Hundreds to vacate his seat - and Labour's candidate selection process is only just beginning.
That the result is unlikely to surprise anyone does not mean the campaign will pass without relevance for the insurance market. By-elections in high-profile seats, particularly inner London seats with large private-rented populations, tend to become platforms for candidates to restate national policy positions in local terms. Two are directly relevant to brokers.
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received royal assent in October 2025 and began coming into force in stages from May 1, 2026. It abolishes Section 21 no-fault evictions, moves all tenancies onto periodic rolling contracts, and introduces a new private-rented sector database and ombudsman service. The Act affects roughly 2.3 million private landlords in England, according to the House of Commons Library.
Holborn and St Pancras has a substantial private rented sector - it is an inner-London constituency covering parts of Camden, King's Cross and Bloomsbury. A campaign here will inevitably draw out candidate positions on the Act's implementation, and on whether further reforms to landlord liability, licensing or insurance requirements are contemplated. For brokers advising private landlord clients, any signal of accelerated implementation or further regulatory extension is worth monitoring from the campaign period rather than waiting for Westminster announcements.
Employment Rights Act provisions and the National Living Wage both moved as live cost pressures when Burnham took office. These are as likely as housing to feature in a central London by-election campaign where hospitality, retail and service sector employment is concentrated. For brokers with employer clients managing group risk, workers' compensation and employers' liability programs, the campaign conversation is worth tracking for any signal of further acceleration in statutory sick pay or flexible working obligations.
When Starmer resigned as prime minister in the summer, broker reaction was measured. Russell Sessions of Vizion Insurance Brokers described the mood at the time as "just another Monday" after six prime ministers in a decade, and argued that real market change tends to come from within firms rather than from Westminster policy shifts.
That scepticism applies equally here. A by-election Labour is not going to lose in a seat it has held for over 40 years does not move underwriting markets. What is worth tracking is not the result but whether the campaign produces any firmer signal on housing, employment or tax policy - on the Part II provisions of the Employment Rights Act or on how landlord regulation develops through 2027 - than Westminster has volunteered so far.
