‘We have a very clear agenda’ – Hackney’s newest political party outlines plans for 2026 ahead of May elections

Candidates from Hackney Independent Socialist Collective pictured with Zoë Garbett of the Hackney Greens. Photograph: HISC

A campaign group based in Hackney has become one of the UK’s newest registered political parties in time for next year’s local elections.

Hackney Independent Socialist Collective (HISC) was officially registered in December 2025 and will be on ballot papers for the May 2026 local elections.

The Party is currently represented at Hackney Town Hall by three councillors: Fliss Premru for the Clissold Ward together with Claudia Turbet-Delof and Penny Wrout for the Victoria Ward. It is hoping to double that number in May, with three new candidates standing; Alana Heaney and Heather Mendick will be campaigning to represent Homerton, while Sarah Byrne will stand in London Fields.

The group in its current form was established after three former Hackney Labour councillors resigned from the party in May 2024. The group’s founding statement reads: “We have established this independent group of now former Hackney Labour councillors to campaign for residents by promoting policies to reduce poverty and inequality and improve the health and well-being of the borough.

“We have found it increasingly difficult to work in Hackney Labour Group, which is stifled by a lack of internal democracy, transparency and scrutiny and by an absence of progressive thinking at national leadership level”.

But Mendick told the Citizen the HISC had begun to take shape years prior. “A lot of us have been working together for a decade”, she said. “The collective came out of the kind of [individual] activism that we’ve all been doing”.

Mendick also hailed what she described as the “historic” collaboration between the Hackney Greens and the HISC, and said she hopes they are also successful in the upcoming elections.

“The assumption is that you’re working in a competitive way”, she said. “We have a very clear agenda for changing Hackney, [hopefully] working with a Green Mayor and Green councillors”.

Looking ahead to the upcoming year, Mendick said housing will be a major priority for the Party. Hackney Council admits the borough is facing a crisis, with around 8,500 households on the waiting list for social housing and property prices more than seven times higher than they were just 20 years ago. 

“Housing is at the top of the list,” Mendick said. “Looking after the council housing we have and building more council housing [is our aim]”.

Another priority is improving young people’s mental health in the borough. Mendick cited the recent controversy at Hackney’s Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy as an example.

A safeguarding review of the school in December 2025 substantiated claims that its strict ‘no excuses’ behavioural policy disproportionately affected certain groups of pupils, including students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and Black boys, the Citizen previously reported.

The review, by Sir Alan Wood, also found some students’ mental health had been negatively impacted by the policies.

“If the schooling system is damaging mental health, then it needs to change”, she told us.

Mendick added HISC wanted to see the council divest from pension funds which she described as being “complicit in war crimes” taking place in Gaza, something she accused the current administration of “refusing” to do.

“We want an international council that respects human rights”, she added.

The council argues it is restricted by legal obligations from divesting on its own from firms such as Elbit Systems, an Israel-based international military technology company headquartered in Haifa.

But following the UK’s official recognition of the state of Palestine in September 2025, Hackney Mayor Caroline Woodley said the council would “explore the changes required to engage with, and divest pension fund investments from, companies tied to human rights breaches, including conflict”.

Mayor Woodley said: “The Council is absolutely committed to taking decisive steps towards divesting pension fund investments from companies tied to human rights breaches, including conflict.

“Following the council’s Extraordinary meeting on this topic, I wrote to the government again in November last year, calling on them to reset the pensions framework to enable councils to legally divest their pension funds from companies that are in breach of human rights. We are actively working with our neighbouring boroughs and the London Collective Investment Vehicle to explore the options available”.