对于霍尔本和圣潘克拉斯选区的新任议员萨加尔·阿卜迪-瓦利来说，当选以接替基尔·斯塔默在该选区的席位，是一件“极具个人意义”的事情，她在接受任命时这样说道。
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.
这位43岁的女性自20世纪90年代起便居住在这一地区。当时，她年仅七岁，便与母亲和四个兄弟一同逃离了战火纷飞的索马里，最终定居在卡姆登区的福音橡，而该区域大部分都属于这个选区。她从难民到议员的历程，正是她希望能为“和我一样的人”带来启发的故事。她说：“这里是卡姆登，这里也是英国。”然而，如果她能够代表这个多元且充满活力的社区中的许多人，那么阿卜迪-瓦利同时也是一位彻头彻尾的工党内幕人士。
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.
数十年的社区志愿服务，与多年活跃的地方党派政治活动紧密交织，甚至在她2022年当选区议会之前就已如此。两年后，她成为工党内阁中负责住房事务的成员，并于今年5月当选为卡姆登区议会首位黑人女性领袖。此外，她还曾担任地方选区党主席长达四年。
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.
朋友们表示，这些深厚的党派和社区根基，有助于解释为何在斯塔默上月辞职后，阿卜迪-瓦利能够从超过100人的长名单中脱颖而出，成为工党在该选区的候选人；同时，这些根基也是她成功击退绿党领袖扎克·波兰斯基挑战的关键。
Those 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.
一位参与她竞选活动的密友表示：“她确实深深扎根于选区的许多不同角落。我想所有议员都愿意认为自己如此，但对萨加尔来说，这是货真价实的。”
"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.
“她与社区之间有着真正的联系，而且我认为绿党和扎克·波兰斯基低估了工党竞选活动的活力和规模。我不认为他们意识到，她在选区中拥有如此深厚的根基。”
"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.
这就是补选的特点：你只有四周时间。所以如果那些根基已经打好了，你就有了一个非常、非常大的领先优势。
"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."
邻近选区汉普斯特德和哈ighgate的工党议员图莉普·西迪克也认同这一点：“她对卡姆登的热爱显而易见，而民众也确实非常珍视这一点。她非常体贴，非常接地气，而且似乎真的对政治和公共服务充满热情。”
Tulip 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."
西迪克表示，在过去“候选人大多平平无奇”之后，“人们开始喜欢一些热情与激情”。
After "lots of flat candidates" in the past, Siddiq says, "people like a bit of passion."
2010年代紧缩政策时期，在国王十字区看到越来越多的无家可归者，促使阿卜迪-瓦利在党内政治中变得更加活跃——考虑到她自身的背景，这或许并不令人意外。她曾说：“直到我年长一些，能够以哲学的方式回顾和思考这一切时，我才注意到，‘我的母亲始终在照顾我们，让我们的生活美好而安宁……无论我们身处难民营还是临时住所。’”
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."
她在周五上午的当选感言中表示，无家可归和住房问题将成为她作为议员的首要任务之一；此外，她还呼吁将泰晤士水务公司收归公有，并努力增加年轻人获得工作机会和学徒岗位的可能性——这些主张也与安迪·伯纳姆的立场不谋而合。
Homelessness 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.
阿卜迪-瓦利长期以来一直活跃于与年轻人合作的社区团体中，包括担任多所学校的校董，并创办了足球俱乐部。据她的密友称，她至今仍经常参加球队比赛，而且“在球场上相当具有攻击性”。（这位朋友还说，她也是一名“铁杆”热刺球迷，“这或许会在[阿森纳主导的]选区中对她不利”。）住房问题是她受到一些批评的领域之一；2024年11月，住房申诉专员发布了一份措辞严厉的报告，称议会的住房服务粗鲁、推诿且不足，而当时阿卜迪-瓦利正是负责该区住房事务的内阁成员。她的朋友们指出，她任职仅六个月，并为她在负责该事务期间的表现辩护。
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".) Housing 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.
当阿卜迪-瓦利被改革党的齐亚·优素福选中时，她还对一条推文不以为意。工党代表迅速称该推文“明显带有种族主义色彩”，甚至改革党其他高层人物也对此表示谴责。
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.
“我给她打了电话，问：‘你还好吗？’”西迪克说。“我想让她放心，表明我们随时支持她。但她回答说：‘不，我觉得自己对此很有韧性。这反而让我更加下定决心继续前进，完成这件事。’”
"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.'"