Local elections 2026: Greens’ Zoë Garbett wins Hackney mayoral contest

Hackney’s new mayor, the Green party’s Zoë Garbett. Photograph: supplied

The Green party candidate Zoë Garbett has won the Hackney mayoral contest with 35,720 votes.

The previous mayor, Labour’s Caroline Woodley, polled second with 26,865 votes. In third place, came the Conservatives Tareke Gregg with 6,345 votes, whilst Vahid Almasi for Reform UK garnered 4,013 votes and Eva Steinhardt for the Liberal Democrats came fifth with 2,731.

The mayoral election results.

In her victory speech, Garbett said: “Today, we start the fightback. In this election, over and over, people kept telling me that they felt let down. People kept saying, ‘it’s hard for me and it’s hard for us’. Council services are failing those who need them most and people are struggling to make ends meet.

“Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government. It is not old parties versus new parties, this is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.

She continued: “This administration is yours because the people of Hackney own Hackney and it’s time to take it back.

“That’s why one of my first acts will be to do a full investigation into who owns Hackney, its buildings, its land, to begin getting these spaces back to the communities who desperately need them.

“Our plan is about getting the basics right and making day to day easier, getting repairs done quickly, making food and energy cheaper, and rooting out racism in our schools.

“I’ll fight the system that views housing as a way of making money, rather than a universal right for every single person.

“I’ll get more council houses from development. The people need somewhere affordable to stay.

“And I won’t be silent about the government decisions that are harming Hackney residents like continued austerity. It is both heart-wrenching and outrageous that here’s something like one in two children in Hackney live in poverty.

“Every day I will work to fix this. Poverty isn’t a fact, it’s a political choice, and Hackney says no.”

The former Hackney mayor, Caroline Woodley, followed Zoë Garbett with her speech.

Since 2002, the Green party has almost tripled its vote share, as the Hackney mayoral election results from 2022 to 2026 show:

The pie charts below show the change more visually:

Hackney mayoral results 2022

Hackney mayoral results 2023

Hackney mayoral results 2026

James Barnes and Patrick Cardwell are reporting for the Citizen live from the election count.