Green Party wins first ever mayoral election in Hackney as Polanski calls for Starmer to resign

Zoë Garbett has won the Green Party’s first-ever mayoral election in Hackney.

BREAKING: First Ever Green Mayor Win 🎉

Zoë Garbett has been elected Mayor of Hackney – huge congratulations! pic.twitter.com/oUk3CRSy8H

— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) May 8, 2026

Garbett won 47.2% of the vote, with 35,720 votes. Labour’s incumbent, Caroline Woodley, secured only 26,865. Clearly, former Labour voters are sick of the party’s bullshit.

🚨 BREAKING: The Green Party’s Zoë Garbett has won the Hackney Mayoral election from Labour

🟢 GRN: 35,720 (47.2%)
🔴 LAB: 26,865 (35.5%)
🔵 CON: 6,345 (8.4%)
➡️ RFM: 4,013 (5.3%)
🟠 LDM: 2,731 (3.6%)

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 8, 2026

Hackney has pretty much been a Labour stronghold since 1964, but the tides are changing.

NEW: Green Party wins Hackney Mayoralty.

First time Hackney Mayor hasn’t been Labour.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 8, 2026

Of course, this does not look good for the rest of the results that will come in throughout the day.

BREAKING

The Greens have won the contest for the Hackney mayorality, a traditional Labour stronghold

It does not augur well for Labour given the swathe of results coming in London later this afternoon and evening…

— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 8, 2026

It seems that Labour voters are turning away from the party of genocide. So much so, that Green Party leader Zack Polanski said:

My message to Keir Starmer is that he needs to go. But I don’t think that’s my message; I think that’s the country message. We’ve seen for a long time now his popularity has been going, and he’s lost for the trust of the country.

Green Party mount ‘the fightback’

In her victory speech, Garbett said:

Today we start the fightback. People kept telling me they felt let down. Council services are failing those who need them most and people are struggling to make ends meet.

I’ve always stood up against injustice for over a decade in the NHS, being a councillor in Dalston, to sitting on the London Assembly, all the work I’ve ever done has been to change the system and services that let people down, harm people, and widen inequality.

Our borough is home to a quarter of a million people, so many people are being failed by the government systems, whether it’s parents, migrants, trans people, disabled people, and young people, the list goes on and on.  Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government. It’s not old parties versus new parties.

This is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.

She added:

Hackney voters have said loud and clear that they are sick of politicians putting profit before our planet, and for supporting genocide and letting down so many people who are struggling. 

Speaking to the press after the speeches, Zack Polanski said:

This is a historic victory, this is the first time the Green Party has ever had a directly elected Mayor. Two-party politics is not just dying, it is dead, and it is buried. And actually, whether it’s here that Labour have been rejected, or where we’re seeing around the country, it’s very clear that the new politics is the Green Party versus Reform.

What is clear is that the British left is sick of a government which whitewashes Israel’s crimes, ignores and even justifies a genocide, turns its back on nearly every minority group and creates an environment of fear and hatred.

The way things are going today, someone might want to check Starmer’s blood pressure.

Featured image via Sun Politics/YouTube