Candidates and supporters at the election count on May 8

THE Greens say full control of Islington Council is now in their sights after coming out of the local elections with a host of new councillors.

After 12 years of incremental gains, the party now has 19 seats – and it might have been an even bigger group if more knife-edge results had tipped in their favour.

Campaigners suggested Labour was now on its toes in nearly every ward in the borough due to the unprecedented results. The Greens had only won three seats at the last boroughwide ballots four years ago and Islington has traditionally been seen as a fortress for Labour.

Councillor Benali Hamdache, the Green leader, said: “It’s crystal clear that it is only the Green Party that can bring accountability to this Labour council.”

More councillors, means more spots on council committees and more opportunities to speak in the council chamber. With no other parties winning seats, the next four years will be a straight clash between Labour and the Greens.

Sheridan Kates, who won a seat in Tufnell Park, said: “People are really showing that they want an alternative. They know that what is happening is not working, they know that the previous top two parties are not delivering for them, and we can show that the Greens are a really viable alternative to provide hope.”

The new Green group is inducted at the Town Hall

The growth in Green votes in Islington was reflected across the city, including in neighbouring Hackney, where they took control of the council, while Labour lost its majority in Haringey.

It comes amid the party’s new management under leader Zack Polanski, who has set a fresh direction for the Greens which is seeing them campaign on a social agenda as much as an environmental one.

Cllr Hamdache said that part of the success in Islington should be attributed to Mr Polanski’s leadership, despite some tough doorstep conversations in the final week over several controversies that hit headlines.

“We wouldn’t be sat here having this conversation if it wasn’t for Zack, and the reality is Zack has injected the Green Party into multi-party politics,” said Cllr Hamdache. “And so has Keir Starmer by letting down a lot of dedicated Labour voters.”

It’s a win in Tufnell Park with Sophia Andersson-Gylden, Sheridan Kates, and Devon Osborne

Post-match analysis had the Greens reflecting that they may have “over-campaigned” in wards like Tufnell Park and Tollington where they decisively seized all three seats from Labour by a significant margin.

They managed to unseat some of Labour’s top team, clinching a seat in Canonbury which saw housing chief John Woolf ousted, as well as two in Clerkenwell.

“In Finsbury Park, we did nothing, in Laycock, with no work, we were 12 votes away,” said Cllr Hamdache.

He added that the Greens were now in the position to take control of the council when Islington next goes to the polls in four years time, insisting that most wards were now “marginal” calls.

Labour held on to one seat in Finsbury Park by only 82 votes, while they were only 76 votes away from losing a councillor in Caledonian. Fractions are always smaller in local elections but the Greens feel it will have been too close for comfort for Labour councillors who saw their majorities cut.

All that said, Labour remains in control – and did not ever look like losing its overall majority at Friday’s count.

Cllr Hamdache said: “They’ve lost a lot of cabinet members. Islington has been true red for a very long time, and at the last local elections, they had councillors where it would have been easier to weigh the votes rather than count the votes.

“The fact is, across the borough, most wards now are marginal to the Green Party. So I think we are well placed to be a Green council at the next local elections.”

A huge turnout – 10 per cent more than in 2022 – is usually celebrated as more people taking part in local democracy.
But the numbers had some Labour campaigners worried from the start, with the fear that some people were coming out to vote Green for the first time.

Jackson Caines, who won a seat in Mildmay, told the Tribune: “Mildmay didn’t start as a target ward, which says a lot about the situation the Green Party is in. We can set our sights and ambitions much higher than originally thought. At the beginning of the campaign nobody thought we could win three seats here, but we have done.

Greens take Mildmay with Carlos Valero, Jackson Caines and Sophia Brown

“Islington Council have tried to insulate themselves from the unpopularity of their national government, but the result in Mildmay shows that it hasn’t worked.”

As the new councillors head to the Town Hall, Cllr Hamdache said the party would act as a “constructive friend” to Labour, and that they would prioritise delivering speedier housing repairs for residents, expanding the council tax reduction scheme, and pushing for further action on the climate crisis.

In a speech to supporters as the count drew to a close, he added: “The Reform surge in this country is terrifying.

“We have to work together to address what is broken. I’m afraid lots of good colleagues have lost their seats because of this national government that is not delivering every single day.

“For residents who are struggling to get by on a daily basis, Keir Starmer is not the leader for them. It’s time to turn the page. The message is clear: It’s over Keir.”