 have begun their bid to win Hackney Council from Labour and end their 20-year rule in the borough.){kind=link}
Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Hackney PSC) is launching a campaign to dethrone Labour’s overall control of Hackney Council in the 2026 local elections.
Launching in May, “Hackney for Palestine 2026” will encourage people to vote for Green and Independent Socialist candidates in a bid to wrestle overall control of the council from Labour.
The campaign hopes the parties will make a deal not to run against each other.
“If Labour lose Hackney…or lose Hackney Mayor, it really sends a signal to Keir Starmer, to the National Labour Party, that you can’t just ignore the Left” – Matt Rowland, Hackney PSC
Hackney PSC, which camped outside the town hall for two months last year, will use its large following and mailing list “to make it very clear to the Hackney public that if they support Palestine, they have to vote against Labour in 2026”.
Hackney PSC activist Matt Rowland Hill told the Hackney Post: “If Labour lose Hackney… or lose Hackney Mayor, it really sends a signal to Keir Starmer, to the National Labour Party, that you can’t just ignore the Left.”
Labour has held overall control of Hackney Council since 2002, but Hill says they have been “very hostile” to Hackney PSC in recent years.
Hackney PSC is confident locals support Palestine. Last year, over a thousand people signed a petition calling on the council to de-twin from the Israeli city of Haifa, which the council rejected.
Hill said: “People in Hackney overwhelmingly support Palestine. Our theory is, all we need to do is find every person in Hackney who is pro-Palestine and inform them that our Labour council here in Hackney supports these policies that are very anti-Palestine, and pro-Israel, and tell them that there is an alternative, and that’s the Green Party.”
Campaigners hope the Greens and Independent Socialists can make a deal to avoid splitting the left-wing vote.
Hill told the Hackney Post: “We very much hope that they’ll come to an agreement not to run against each other, because the one thing that will save Labour is if the left vote is split… I fully expect them to come up with some kind of agreement.”
Asked about the possibility of a deal, Green Councillor Liam Davis said: “The Green Group have worked closely with a range of community groups, including those campaigning for Palestinian solidarity, and collaboratively with the Independent Socialist councillors on shared priorities like housing, continued cuts to our public services, and environmental justice. We’ve also stood alongside them in pushing for the council to de-twin from Haifa and divest pension funds from companies complicit in the occupation and genocide in Gaza.
lABOUR HAVE BEEN “VERY HOSTILE” TO hACKNEY PSC IN RECENT YEARS
“It’s no surprise that pro-Palestine activists want to see councillors who reflect their values elected in 2026, and who stand against their council playing any part in human rights abuses and genocide. Beyond those shared principles and issue-based collaborations, our focus at the moment remains on continuing to build a strong alternative in Hackney by boldly standing up for residents and our community.”
Independent Socialist Councillor Penny Wrout, who resigned from Hackney Labour in 2024, said: “As Independent Socialists in Hackney, we’ve been very pleased to work with Green councillors on a number of issues. We find ourselves closely aligned on many policies, not least opposing the continued cuts the borough is having to shoulder, supporting migrants, fighting for better housing in Hackney and building the environmental agenda locally.
“We have actively campaigned with Green colleagues opposing the genocide in Gaza and for the council to divest any pension monies assisting Israeli activities in Gaza or the West Bank. No doubt we and the Greens will also be judged on the public stance we have taken on local issues… Labour will have to take its chances against the strong record we are forging of standing up for residents and giving them a louder voice in decision making.”
Hackney Mayor Caroline Woodley wrote to then Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in January 2024 asking “the government to provide funding to support local policing, community safety and community cohesion work to foster peace-making at a local level”.
The letter also urged the government to “do everything in its power to bring about an immediate cessation to hostilities in Israel and Palestine, including an immediate and sustainable humanitarian ceasefire on all sides, and the immediate release of all hostages”.
Mayor Woodley repeated calls for a ceasefire in November, when Hackney PSC’s de-twinning petition was presented to the council. At the time, she said she understood “the strength of feeling on all sides of this debate” but was “committed to twinning”.
Hackney Labour were contacted for comment but have not responded.
Bethan Moss is Hackney Post's beat reporter for Homerton and a freelance journalist. She is studying for an MA in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Varsity, the University of Cambridge's only independent newspaper.