Seven Hackney councillors to stand down at local elections
Cllr Sophie Conway is stepping down ahead of May’s elections. Photograph: Hackney Labour
Seven Hackney councillors including a London Assembly member are to stand down before the local elections on 7 May 2026.
Labour has held control of the local authority for all but seven years since its creation in 1964.
The party currently has 44 councillors while the Conservatives have six, the Greens have three, and there are four independent members.
However, since the last local elections the party has seen four councillors resign. Three were blocked from standing again, though one councillor successfully challenged this decision.
Now, several Labour members have confirmed they will quit the council.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands all the sitting Conservative councillors are planning to stand again in May, though a spokesperson said “nothing is confirmed”.
The Greens said they would release their list of candidates in the coming weeks. Labour is also expected to field its slate of candidates for the May elections in due course.
Councillors standing down
Sophie Conway – Labour
A Hackney native and social housing tenant, Conway has represented Hackney Central since 2016 and will be stepping down as a councillor in May.
Conway has served as chair of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee, which in the last year has overseen a review of school behaviour policies and exclusions in the borough.
She told the LDRS she was resigning as a councillor due to the difficulty of balancing her duties with her personal life. “My son just refuses to go to bed, and I want to spend more time with my family”, she said.
Sem Moema – Labour
Cllr Sem Moema is stepping down for personal reasons, Hackney Labour confirmed. Photograph: GLA
Deputy cabinet member Moema is no longer standing in Hackney Downs, where she was first elected as ward councillor in 2006.
Moema previously stood down from this patch at the 2010 elections, before returning in a by-election in 2016.
Moema, who was born in Islington to South African parents who had fled Apartheid in the 1970s, has also represented Hackney, Islington and Camden as a London Assembly member since 2021.
Moema currently serves in Mayor Caroline Woodley’s cabinet as a mayoral adviser for private rented sector and housing affordability.
This role has seen her steward the introduction of mandatory borough-wide landlord licensing.
Hackney Labour has confirmed Moema is standing down from her ward seat for personal reasons.
Humaira Garasia – Labour
A former member of Hackney Youth parliament, Garasia was elected to represent Haggerston in 2018 where she became the party’s youngest councillor.
Born and raised in Hackney, she became Deputy Speaker of the House in 2021 and later served as Speaker.
Hackney Labour has confirmed she will not be standing again. The LDRS approached her for further comment.
Ali Sadek – Labour
Cllr Ali Sadek has served Kings Park ward since the last local elections. Photograph: Hackney Labour
Sadek has confirmed he is stepping down from his Kings Park ward seat in May, where he has served since 2022.
He is currently a legal adviser at the Competition and Markets Authority, and has also worked as a public lawyer for the Government Legal Department and for an international commercial law firm. Sadek declined to offer further comment.
Ifraax Samatar – Labour
Cllr Ifraax Samatar is standing down for health reasons. Photograph: Hackney Labour
Samatar said she will not stand again due to long-term health conditions.
Samatar has represented Shacklewell since 2022, where she spent “most of her childhood”.
She has worked as a teacher, a youth worker, a community organiser and as a mental health advocate, and is also the founder and host of the Hackney Holocaust Community Memorial.
As a councillor she has served on the borough’s planning sub-committee and on the Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission, covering housing, leisure, culture, and sustainability.
Caroline Selman – Labour
Cllr Caroline Selman with former Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville. Photograph: Hackney Council
Selman plans to quit as a councillor after representing Woodberry Down for more than a decade. She was Hackney’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Policy and the Voluntary Sector under former Mayor Glanville until 2020, when she left the post to go on maternity leave.
During her time on the council she has served on the Special Joint Scrutiny Commission into the Child Q strip-searching scandal in 2020, and also as a member of the Living in Hackney and Audit committees. Since 2021 Selman has been employed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Good Law Project.
The LDRS contacted her for further comment.
Ben Hayhurst – Labour
Hayhurst has represented Hackney Central since 2012. A governor of Homerton Hospital in the borough, he has monitored health policy and held the local authority to account over health and social care services as Chair of the Health in Hackney Scrutiny Commission. Hayhurst is a professional barrister with 187 Chambers. According to Hackney Labour’s website, he previously worked as a care worker for young people and has interned at the United Nations.
The local party confirmed that Hayhurst would not be standing again. The LDRS contacted him for comment.
Three councillors blocked
Not all Labour councillors are leaving of their own accord. Last year Labour’s London region deselected three members, preventing them from standing again for their party. Though the regional party has not confirmed this, the Mayor of Hackney said this was due to their repeatedly defying the party whip, notably in 2023 for a “procedural” vote to allow time for an opposition motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Soraya Adejare – Labour
Cllr Soraya Adejare has represented Brownswood ward for 12 years. Photograph: Hackney Labour
Adejare has represented Brownswood ward since 2014. As councillor, she chaired both the council’s housing scrutiny committee and the Child Q commission.
She unsuccessfully appealed her deselection last year. Speaking to the LDRS, she said: “Apparently, after 12 years, my decision-making is of concern. No complaints have ever been made against me, and I have no record of disreputable activities.
“Not quite on the scale of making a decision on anointing Mandelson as an ambassador: it relates to a procedural vote in respect of a motion that was tabled calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. I voted to hear it and my actions were in full alignment with the legal guidance given in the meeting. We didn’t even get to the actual motion”.
Clare Joseph – Labour
Cllr Clare Joseph previously appealed her deselection by London Labour. Photograph: Hackney Labour
Born and raised in Hackney, avowed socialist Joseph entered local politics after setting up a tenants’ association on her council estate, and was elected as a councillor for Victoria ward in 2018.
She successfully appealed her deselection by London Labour, but failed to get enough support to be re-selected for her local branch.
A source from the Victoria ward branch said many people were “upset” by this. “It felt there had been an organised attempt by a particular faction to block Clare”.
While Joseph had voted in favour of hearing the Gaza ceasefire motion, the branch member claimed the alleged “targeting” was over her voting in favour of an independent inquiry into the events surrounding a disgraced Labour councillor in 2023 which ultimately led to Mayor Glanville’s resignation.
Hackney Labour was approached for comment. Joseph told the LDRS she was yet to decide if she would stand again as an independent candidate.
M Can Ozsen – Independent (formerly Labour)
Cllr M Can Ozsen quit Hackney Labour last month. Photograph: Hackney Labour
London Fields councillor Ozsen quit the Labour Party last month, announcing his decision at a meeting of the full council. He was deselected last month and failed in his appeal against the party’s decision. He launched an incendiary attack on his former party he said had “abandoned its core values” and was engaged in a “factional intolerance of dissent”.
Ozsen was first elected in 2014. In his resignation he blamed London Labour for blocking him over a vote on the Gaza ceasefire, but also implied that the local party did not want him to stand again. A spokesperson for the local party denied this. Mayor Woodley has also supported him in his appeal against deselection.
Ozsen told the LDRS he was considering running again as an independent.
London Labour was approached for comment.
Note: This story was amended at 12 midday on Monday 16 February 2026. The previous headline implied that councillors were quitting immediately before the local elections, which is not the case. The previous version of the article incorrectly stated that the current mayor, Caroline Woodley, was still a ward councillor. Reference to this has been removed from the article.
As a constituent and former Labour member it is a shame that Sophie Conway is no longer standing in my ward as I’ve voted for her many times. I left the party when Starmer was elected leader, my first choices were Lewis and Thornberry but alas the PLP in their infinate wisdom didn’t even give the opportunity to do so.
Who’s being parachuted in by the autocrats for Hackney Central to replace Conway and Hayhust?
“See how they run like pigs from a gun”
I remember Soraya when she was a councillor in Dalston. Unlike some councillors who are in it for themselves who sit in their offices and the only time you hear from them is when they read out Starmer lines – she always stood up for residents and challenged unfair systems for everyone. She called out the police over child q when even senior councillors didnt and is active in community campaigns not just the ones that get you headlines. A very decent woman it’s a shame the Labour Party don’t want decent councillors who do the right things and what residents need. Hackney is a mess no one should vote Labour
Loyalty to the leadership is everything in the modern Labour Party. Thinking about constituents and working for them is forbidden.
When they are kicking out the good ones or they are leaving you know Labour is a party of dregs. They want to privatise the NHS, they created the academies that are damaging our kids in Hackney, they increased student loans and are still doing Conservative cuts in the council where people are losing their jobs. Forde Report shows they are racist against blacks and Muslims and they hate the working class and disabled people. Get them out.
The way the Labour Party is being run right now means anyone standing is definitely a stooge. No democracy, across the country we saw how fruends of Starmer were dumped in communities in the general election and the same is happening in Hackney right now. We deserve better than this and it is time for a change.