Former Labour councillor defects to Green party during council’s annual budget meeting

Cllr Soraya Adejare has defected to the Green Party. Photograph: Hackney Labour

A former Hackney Labour councillor has defected to the Green party.

Cllr Soraya Adejare has served the Brownswood ward for 14 years. Born and raised in Hackney, she has used her platform to advocate for working-class communities and social and private tenants in the borough.

At Hackney Council’s annual budget meeting last night (Wednesday, 4 March) she crossed the floor to sit with the Greens.

“It is troubling for me, having sat in this chamber for 12 years, and over the past decade making repeated calls for more funding, and recognising the damage that the Conservatives’ fiscal approach did to our borough”, she said.

“That being said, the approach of the current government does not meet our needs, irrespective of the pots of funding it provides for us”.

Cllr Adejare added that under the current Hackney Labour administration and Tory and Labour governments in Westminster, her 12-year-old daughter had seen “no material benefits throughout her lifetime”, and that increasing spending cuts would mean “that’s likely to continue”.

Thanking her Labour colleagues who had supported her through “an incredibly difficult time”, she concluded: “I will be walking across the chamber and supporting the Greens”.

During her run as councillor, Adejare has chaired both the council’s housing scrutiny committee and the Child Q special joint scrutiny commission.

But she was deselected by Labour and made an unsuccessful attempt to appeal the decision last year. She previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “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”.

Hackney currently has a majority Labour council and Labour executive mayor with, now, four Green Party councillors.

The Green Party is hoping to gain some ground in the upcoming local elections on Thursday 7 May.

The party’s Hackney mayoral candidate Cllr Zoë Garbett said: “Tonight we are so proud to welcome Soraya to the Hackney Green party.

“Her move to join the Green group sends a clear message: Hackney residents deserve representatives who will stand up for their communities, not simply follow party lines.

“Soraya has the respect of residents for her bold advocacy. She fights residents who deserve decent and affordable housing, youth services, and against racist policing. We look forward to fighting for the people of Hackney together”.

Hackney Labour party has been approached for comment.