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2 hours ago
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Zack Polanski has declared Britain’s two-party politics “dead and buried” as his Green party won its first ever mayoral election.
The Greens unseated Labour from mayoral power in the east London borough of Hackney after 24 years. The new mayor, Zoë Garbett, told reporters she was “elated” and promised it was just the beginning, after the party won with 35,720 votes to Labour’s 26,865.
“Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government,” she said. “It’s not old politics … versus new parties. This is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.”
“All the work I’ve ever done has been to change the system and services that let people down, harm people and widen inequality. Our borough has over a quarter of a million people,” added Garbett, who succeeds the Labour mayor Caroline Woodley.
“So many people have been failed by the government and the systems, whether it’s parents, migrants, trans people, disabled people and younger people. The list goes on and on.”
Speaking outside the count, Polanski said: “The two-party politics is no longer dying; it is dead and buried.”
The Green party leader in England and Wales said Labour was failing in its job to help people in the cost of living crisis, adding: “People are sick and tired of Labour, but also really [excited] about a Green alternative which is about protecting people and our planet.
“When you combine hope and a plan, that’s when you win elections like Hackney.”
Garbett’s victory was a big blow to Labour, which is on tenterhooks as the count for the council begins, despite the Greens only holding two of the 57 seats in the borough. A surge in support in the face of dissatisfaction with the government on issues such as immigration and housing means a bleak outlook for Labour.
Polanski sees the borough, which has one of the capital’s most diverse populations, as a bellwether for the Greens, with reports that he may use it to launch his own Westminster career.
There were signs of a Green surge in Hackney as far back as 2022 when Garbett, an NHS worker, was elected as a councillor with the highest vote for the party in the capital.
