ISLINGTON’S longest serving Green councillor will step down at next year’s council elections, the Tribune can reveal.
Caroline Russell, who has been a councillor in Highbury for more than a decade, has said that she will not re-stand for election next May in order to focus on her work in the London Assembly.
She said: “It feels like the right time. We need to grow the party, and I really want to focus on the London Assembly. It’s important to know when the right time is to step away, to let other people take up the mantle.”
The Greens have selected four target wards as they gear up for the 2026 council elections – Highbury, Tufnell Park, Tollington, and Clerkenwell.
Fuelled by recent wins elsewhere in London, they say they feel confident that their presence in the Town Hall will grow after the next local vote.
Asked whether they were, however, too reliant on anti-Labour sentiment, Cllr Russell said: “I think it’s the time to seize on the pro-Green sentiment. Around the country, people are voting for Greens. They’ve seen that we work hard, and that we represent our communities.”
She added: “The political weather is definitely changing. It’s been tough for the Greens. Ever since Jeremy Corbyn became leader and all through that period, it’s not been a good electoral environment”. But Cllr Russell said the tide was now turning.
“The Greens have been clear on issues like Gaza, trans rights, inequality and being brave enough to say we need to tax the richest people in society,” she said.
“People want to vote in a positive way, and I know that after the election next May there will be a much bigger group of Green councillors on the council.”
Cllr Russell was the only opposition councillor in the chamber when she was first elected in 2014, sitting on a separate bench to the 47-strong Labour group.
“To be honest that was really tough”, she told the Tribune.
“To start with the Labour councillors were pretty brutal in the council chamber, but I kept working in a co-operative constructive way and in the end it got a bit boring having a go at the only opposition councillor”.
At that time, Terry Stacey, whose Lib Dems at been shut out of the Town Hall, dubbed Islington the “North Korea of north London”, and accusations that a “one-party state” was damaging have become a common chant of opposition parties trying to edge their way back in.
“It’s not good for residents, it’s not good for the Labour party, it’s not good for the Greens, and it’s not good for other parties that have no representation on the council,” said Cllr Russell.
Dr Talia Hussain has been selected to run for the Greens in Highbury.
She said: “Caroline’s will be huge shoes to fill but I promise to bring the same hardworking and focused spirit to the Town Hall and the community.”
