Sheffield steels herself for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

With Keir Starmer quitting the Commons and his Holborn and St Pancras seat for a big job on the international stage, tongues are a-waggin’ as to who will get the Labour nod for what should, on paper, be a plum seat.

One noted expert having her tuppence worth was Emily Sheffield, short-lived London Standard editor, daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet and sister-in-law of David Cameron. Taking to X, she appeared to dare London mayor Sadiq Khan – who her Standard repeatedly criticised and declined to back in the 2021 mayoral election – to throw his hat in the ring.

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“Will @SadiqKhan have the guts to apply to run in Starmer’s old seat?,” Sheffield asked on X.

“Or stick to his long mayoral run? Power is addictive, some don’t want to risk it. But a political life with no risk?”, wrote the former media advisor to the Conservatives during their spectacularly successful 2024 general election campaign.

Alas for Sheffield, X users were quick to remind that her Khan is exceedingly unlikely to seek to run in Holborn given that he was only appointed to the House of Lords on August 20 – something that appears to have passed the journalist by. “A shame – the manoeuvres on the Labour side would have been fun to watch”, she sniffed on X the following day.

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With the Lords only reconvening this week after its lengthy summer snoozefest Khan is yet to be formally introduced, meaning he has had no opportunity to speak. As soon as he does, though, he will equal the amount of times Sheffield’s brother-in-law has spoken in the chamber this year. Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton has contributed a whopping once since December 16 last year.

Meanwhile, never mind the Labour nomination – will Sheffield seek the Conservatives’? She did run as the Tory candidate in the Queen’s Park ward by-election for Brent Council in 2024, taking 16.33% of the vote. In the last general election the Conservatives took just 7.2% of the vote in Holborn and St Pancras – but come on, Emily: what’s the point of a political life with no risk?