‘Give us more time to do more’: Hackney Labour’s campaign to retain control of local council

Hackney – East London’s so-called ‘hipster hub’, home to a diverse culture and vibrant feeling. Birthplace of Idris Elba and Lord Alan Sugar. A London borough that continues on its significant reputational journey, with poverty and gentrification packed tightly together side-by-side across its wards. Home to a Labour-controlled council since 2002.

For the first time in two decades, the party cannot consider the borough ‘safe’. Reports say that the Green Party, under leader Zack Polanski, are heavily targeting Hackney council. Polling suggests they may be able to win it.

To continue LabourList’s reporting on the local election campaigns across the country, I visited London Fields in Hackney for a walking tour around the area with candidates. I was keen to find out more about the local party’s approach to this election.

Once votes are cast in the first week of May, Hackney will be scrutinised closely to see which way it will turn. Will Labour be able to hold off the insurgent populism of the Greens? Or will we see an outcome reminiscent of the recent Green success story over Labour that was the Gorton and Denton by-election result?

READ MORE: Fight for London begins as Labour launch local election campaigns across England

Regardless, I was particularly interested in the current assessment of the situation from the individuals campaigning in the area.

I met with representatives for the London Fields ward outside the local primary school and next to one of Hackney’s popular green spaces. Councillors George Gooch and Anntoinette Bramble are both standing for re-election. Alongside them, I was greeted by a local candidate who has lived in the ward for 35 years, Owen Ramsey. Leading our tour was Hackney’s Labour Mayor, Caroline Woodley.

Woodley refer’s to the area as the “people’s borough,” noting to me the diversity of the community in the area and how important that is to Hackney as a place to live.

“We have 89 different languages, we found at the last census, spoken in Hackney. Our borough is built on migrants. We are very proud to be a place of welcome, and if there’s one story you take away from here, that we take care of our residents in Hackney.”

Ramsey added “it’s a place where people want to stay. 89 different languages. And yet, all I see when I wander around is harmony.” It was clear that the divisive language and rhetoric of the far-right made no impact on cohesion across the local community, with the local Labour Party determined it would not find its way into the area.

Woodley continued to illustrate this point by referencing a specific road in the area – the one she lives on.

“You’ve got a church, synagogue, mosque, working side by side, really taking care of each other in the community through the best times and the worst of times.”

Turning to the role of the council when taking care of the community, Councillor Bramble explained it simply: “They tell us what they need. They tell us what they want, and we do our best to deliver. And we do deliver.”

Delivery was the consistent theme that we returned to several times across my morning with this group of local activists. The efforts of Labour in Hackney were not only to look out for one demographic of residents, but provide improvements to the area for all who live there.

“Looking after those residents is really important, some of the ones that need a bit more of our support. But we are also quite focussed on doing the things that people want to see from us, where they don’t need so much of our direct support. Just making Hackney be a really nice place to live. The parks are nice places to be. We have good leisure centres that we are investing in. Our schools are really performing. All of those things, you know, if you’re not relying on the council heavily, like some people need to, the council is still doing its bit for you.”

Throughout the time I spent with them, the candidates had a seemingly endless list of achievements Labour had delivered for the area by being in control of the council. While explaining this, they told a familiar story that I have heard time and again across my recent travels and conversations with longstanding Labour incumbents.

The fourteen years of Conservative leadership at a national level meant Labour had to fight to protect the people of Hackney against austerity. It made things extremely hard, with Woodley telling me how often meetings for the council would revolve around where budget efficiencies could be made while protecting necessary services. How difficult it was to provide people with the services they needed; being constantly asked to do more with less. Hackney Labour feel that they met this challenge with both the fiscal responsibility and socially-driven approach required for some success in delivery. This could now be seen materialising both in the data the council was collecting, and their list of achievements they could point out to me.

The first success outlined was simply that residents would claim they actually liked to live in Hackney.

Councillor Gooch explained “When we ask people, the key question, do you like living in hackney? Everyone says yes. Yeah… and everyone says, you know, I think the council does a good job of looking after Hackney.”

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Beyond satisfaction in the area generally, if there is one policy area Hackney Labour will campaign on with unshakeable confidence, it is education. They brought it up repeatedly, framing it as a defining achievement. I was told the area has gone from one of the lowest performing in the nation to now having 2025 provisional data suggest it is joint first in the country at Key Stage 2.

SEND provision is also an area of pride for the local representatives. A pressure point for many authorities, Hackney had committed to creating 300 specialist places in 2022. “We’ll exceed that,” Councillor Bramble told me, as places will increase through the council’s delivery of funding for two extra special schools, opening up more places.

The council is also introducing functions for support with social, emotional and mental health, alongside pushing to make mainstream settings more inclusive for all. They told me of the recognition for culture representation on local education panels, looking to include library teams in any discussions. 

“We’re… thinking about how to keep that child in school, but we’re not just focusing on behaviour. What are the other things we can offer to that child as an alternative to make them connect with education in a way that… wasn’t working for them? So it’s a huge game changer for us. 

It’s also free for every type of school. So whether you’re academy or not, you get this provision free, because if you have a school, irrespective of your status, you have our children, and we want to ensure that our exclusions are lower, and inclusion is championed throughout the borough, to match those fantastic results.”

The conversation moved naturally from education into early help, an area the Labour team in Hackney believe differentiates them from their opponents. Hackney’s early years hubs, speech and language tools adopted by other boroughs, and a new permanent Care Leavers Hub were all offered as examples of sustained political commitment to the borough’s children.

On housing, the group recognised challenges, but approached them with pragmatic responses. While accepting there are issues with reported overcrowding, damp and mould as well as the borough’s soaring rent prices, Hackney Labour argue they are doing their best to fight the crisis through investing in housing stock.

Over £550 million of investment into the existing estates is already underway, with a lift replacement programme, decarbonisation measures, energy efficiency upgrades, and a growing buy-back scheme to return ex-council homes to social rent.

Labour expects that the Greens will pursue a narrative that the council has been underwhelming in their response to the housing crisis. Labour sees the long term strategy in Hackney as their best defence against the Green Party that offer little more than re-directing anger in the direction of local government as a bid to oust them on the council.

The candidates did not shy away from the fact that they are competing with voter dissatisfaction, but did not believe the Greens could sustain the delivery and maintenance that Labour has provided for the area. Campaigning from the Greens was seen as noisy, but fragmented. I took away from my conversation that in Hackney, Labour feel it is easier to capitalise on general discontent at the state of the country after years of Conservative chaos nationally causing problems for local authorities everywhere.

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Though, with a Labour government now in Parliament, funding streams for local investment are considered much more accessible. Add to this having a Labour Mayor of London who the local candidates consider especially supportive of initiatives, what Hackney Labour are asking for now is the opportunity to take their strong record to the next level.

Mayor Caroline Woodley put her request of the electorate to me.

“Give us more time, and we’ll be able to do more.”

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