“I had the sudden realisation, that I should run,” Zoë Garbett said as she describes the wistful moment in 2019 when, looking out of a train window, she realised she wanted to get involved in local politics. “I’ve worked in a local authority,” she thought. “I’m going to be really good when I get people elected.” It was only then that it dawned on her, she explains: she could be the one to run as a councillor – a fact her friends had been repeating to her for a while.
Fast forward to 2024, and Garbett, now a Councillor for Dalston, is running to be London’s first Green Party Mayor.
Although she lost the Hackney mayoral by-election last November, Garbett made headlines during her campaign by claiming she would abolish the very role she was running for. Ahead of the London Mayoral election in May, she sat down for a conversation with the Hackney Post.
Originally from Somerset, Garbett, 36, started her journey in public life after completing her master’s at the University of the West of England. She quickly got involved with the Greens, distributing leaflets and getting people involved in Green Party events.
“I’ve been asked what values I’d give up to get into power.
That’s not even a question for me.”
Public service is at the heart of what she does. For more than ten years she has worked in various roles in the NHS in and around London. In her most recent role, she helped reduce health inequalities in the service. To dedicate herself to the Mayoral election entirely, Garbett recently took part in a voluntary redundancy scheme and left the NHS.
You quickly get a sense of what Zoë Garbett is all about – she truly believes in her programme. She is eager to speak about her campaign proposals and why she thinks she will win the election. From free bus fares for under 22-year-olds to reforms to the Metropolitan Police, Garbett is running on a programme she says reflects her left-wing values.
“I’ve been asked what values I’d give up to get into power,” she said. “That’s not even a question for me.”
For Garbett, getting elected is not about getting into power. Instead, she insists she is running to get closer to the people in her community of Hackney.
A product of Hackney
Garbett proudly brands herself as a product of Hackney, having lived in almost every part of the borough. She has been involved in a number of community organisations – near her current home in Dalston, she runs a community garden with her neighbours.
Garbett describes herself as both an optimist and a pragmatist. The way she sees it: if there is a problem, why shouldn’t she be the one to fix it?
Although she is not part of ‘Gen Z’, Garbett’s brand is carefully tailored to a younger generation of voters who, she claims, have become disillusioned by the Labour Party. She cites Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s reluctance to support a ceasefire in the Middle East, as well as Labour’s lack of clear policy surrounding the climate crisis.
Garbett is anything but reluctant to speak on these issues. With her signature pink hair, she regularly appears on social media at protests for climate change or for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We all want the same things,” she says when discussing what many consider to be controversial topics. In her view, even the hardest of issues can be solved, as long as there is an opportunity to discuss it openly, in citizen’s assemblies for example.
She highlights the time when she led the review on the Green Party’s drug policy. Her recommendations rely community policing initiatives, drug reform and a “strategic partnership with the London Met Commander”. The over-policing of black and Asian youths and the current punitive approach to drug consumption are ineffective, she explains.
That experience taught her the impact lawmakers can have on issues to which they are barely connected. Garbett sees herself as a reformer in this regard, as someone who will come in and give people a bigger say in local issues.
In her Hackney bid for Mayor, as well as her current push for the London mayoralty, Garbett has made her personality a large part of her campaigns. Although she should be credited for doubling the score of the Green Party since 2018, it was not enough for her to win the Mayoral race in last November’s by-election.
Currently standing at third place in the polls, behind the incumbent Labour candidate Sadiq Khan and the Conservative Susan Hall, Garbett still has a way to go. All is left to know is if her openness and genuine concern for her community end up transferring into a win for her in London’s race for Mayor.
Additional reporting by Alastair Lyon
