The Green party has won its first directly elected mayor after its candidate received 47% of the vote in Hackney LBC.
Zoë Garbett, currently a Hackney councillor and member of the Greater London Assembly, ousted incumbent Labour mayor Caroline Woodley.
The borough has long been seen as a Labour stronghold.
Ms Garbett received 35,720 votes, almost 9,000 votes ahead of Ms Woodley. It marks a stark reversal of fortune for the Labour candidate, who had beaten Ms Garbett by a slightly higher number of votes in a 2023 mayoral by-election in 2023.
Last month, Ms Garbett predicted sweeping changes across the capital, telling a hustings event: “I think we’re going to see huge changes across London in a way that we’ve never experienced before in these elections.”
Ms Woodley last month acknowledged the current political situation was “quite a volatile moment”.
But when asked by LGC about the outcome she was confident of victory, saying: “Oh, I’m going to win. It’s not going to be easy, and I have to accept that a breaking news story that’s completely outside of my gift could slant things for people who haven’t yet put across in the box.”
