Zoë Garbett has begun her term as mayor of the London Borough of Hackney following a significant electoral breakthrough for the Green Party of England and Wales in local elections earlier this month.Garbett’s victory ended decades of Labour political control in the east London borough and formed part of a broader advance by the Green Party across England.

Nationally, the party secured more than 500 council seats, gained control of five councils and won two mayoralties during the local elections.The result in Hackney drew particular political attention because of the borough’s longstanding association with the Labour Party.

In addition to Garbett winning the directly elected mayoralty, the Green Party expanded its representation on the council from four councillors to 40. Labour’s representation fell from 50 seats in 2022 to nine.“Before the election, I was saying it’s going to be really different this time, there is going to be a different landscape in London,” Garbett said.

“But I genuinely did not think it would be to this scale.”The political shift in Hackney reflects wider changes in voter alignment in parts of urban England, where housing costs, public services, environmental policy and dissatisfaction with established political parties have become increasingly influential local issues.Hackney is one of London’s most socially and economically diverse boroughs.

According to Hackney Council data, around half of residents are from Black and other global majority communities. The borough also contains significant disparities in income and living conditions, with affluent neighbourhoods existing alongside areas of long-term deprivation.Government data from the English Indices of Deprivation has identified Hackney as one of the country’s most severely affected areas for child deprivation.

Life expectancy in the borough also remains below the national average despite sustained regeneration and investment in parts of east London over the past two decades.Garbett now oversees a council administration responsible for services including housing, transport, public health, adult social care and environmental management.

Hackney Council operates with an annual budget of approximately £2 billion.Housing policy is expected to become one of the defining issues of Garbett’s administration. The borough has experienced sustained gentrification over recent years, driven by rising property prices, private investment and population growth across east London.

Those changes have contributed to pressure on social housing availability and concerns over displacement among long-term residents and community organisations.Garbett said her administration intends to prioritise the expansion of what she described as “genuinely affordable homes” alongside investment in council housing maintenance and safety improvements.

She also announced plans for a programme called “Who Owns Hackney”, which she said would focus on identifying empty properties that could potentially be repurposed for public or community use.“There is no extra money from government but we’ve got all these assets in empty properties and we could be doing much more,” Garbett said.

Her comments reflect wider financial constraints facing local authorities across England. Councils have faced prolonged budgetary pressure following years of reduced central government funding combined with rising demand for social care, housing support and local infrastructure spending.

The mayor said concerns about displacement and loss of community space were particularly relevant for Black residents and Black-owned businesses in Hackney, where redevelopment and rising commercial rents have altered the borough’s social and economic composition.“Black spaces for black communities and black-led business have been kind of pushed out of Hackney,” Garbett said.

“So it is a question of how can we use the council’s assets to push back against some of that and open up these spaces for people to use again.”The Green Party’s electoral growth has prompted debate within British politics about whether the party’s platform has broadened beyond its traditional environmental focus into housing, public services and economic inequality.

Garbett rejected suggestions that climate policy had become secondary within the party’s agenda.She said climate policy remained central to the borough’s proposed governance framework and described climate justice as a guiding principle linking multiple policy areas, including housing resilience, public health, urban planning and transport.

“Everything I do has got climate and climate justice at its centre,” Garbett said. “It’s one of our core principles that runs through our manifesto, from trying to buy back council homes and make housing safer and more resilient, to rewilding in parks, from public health to transport.”Her administration is expected to face immediate scrutiny over how environmental priorities are balanced against financial limitations and rising service demands.

Like many London boroughs, Hackney continues to manage pressures linked to temporary accommodation costs, adult social care funding and infrastructure maintenance.The political implications of the Hackney result extend beyond local government. The Green Party’s gains in London and other urban centres have raised questions about future competition between progressive parties for voters dissatisfied with Labour while also opposed to right-wing political movements.

Garbett acknowledged concerns among residents regarding national political developments, particularly around immigration policy and the growth of right-wing parties in parts of Britain.

“I speak to residents all the time in Hackney who are terrified about the changes to immigration for them or their family members and communities if Reform get in,” she said, referring to Reform UK.She said the Green Party’s local performance created a responsibility to demonstrate effective governance and provide an alternative political model capable of retaining progressive support.

“We’ve got a responsibility to deliver and to make sure that people are looking to the Green party as an alternative rather than to Reform or further rightwing parties,” Garbett said.

The change in leadership at Hackney Town Hall marks one of the most significant local political realignments in London in recent years and places the borough at the centre of wider debates over urban governance, environmental policy and shifting electoral loyalties in Britain.

The Metropolitan Police said around 4,000 officers, supported by mounted units, drones, helicopters and police dogs, would be deployed to manage the demonstrations alongside security demands posed by the FA Cup final.

Authorities imposed strict conditions on the timing and routes of both marches in an effort to prevent clashes between rival groups. Police estimated the operation would cost approximately £4.5 million ($6 million) and warned they would adopt what they described as a “zero-tolerance approach” to disorder and hate speech violations.

For the first time, organizers of the demonstrations could face legal accountability if invited speakers breach Britain’s hate speech laws, the force said.Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday that anyone attempting to “wreak havoc” or intimidate communities would face “the full force of the law.”

Speaking after visiting the Metropolitan Police operational control center, Starmer accused organizers of the far-right rally of “peddling hatred and division.”Starmer’s comments came days after his ruling Labour Party suffered setbacks in local elections, where hard-right Reform UK and nationalist parties made gains, intensifying pressure on his leadership.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has become one of Britain’s most prominent anti-Islam activists, drawing large crowds through online campaigns focused on immigration, free speech and national identity issues.

Police estimate roughly 50,000 supporters could attend Robinson’s rally, while about 30,000 people are expected at the rival march organized by anti-racism campaigners and pro-Palestinian groups marking Nakba Day, which commemorates the displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948.

The anti-fascist group Stand Up to Racism merged its demonstration with the Nakba Day protest.Robinson urged supporters on social media to remain peaceful, avoid masks and limit alcohol consumption, while describing the gathering as a campaign to “Unite The Kingdom and the West.

”The Metropolitan Police said live facial recognition technology would be used for the first time during a protest operation in London. Officials also confirmed that 11 foreign far-right activists had been barred from entering Britain ahead of the rally.

Among those blocked was Valentina Gomez, whom the government described as using inflammatory rhetoric targeting Muslim communities.

Matthew Feldman, a specialist in far-right extremism at Liverpool Hope University, said some violent elements were likely to attend despite appeals for calm.

The elections across England, Scotland and Wales marked Labour’s most serious political setback since the party returned to power in the 2024 general election, ending more than a decade of Conservative-led government.Writing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Starmer acknowledged public dissatisfaction following Thursday’s vote but rejected calls for Labour to shift ideologically in response to the results.“

The right lesson is to listen to voters,” Starmer wrote, adding that doing so “doesn’t mean tacking right or left.”The strongest advances came from Reform UK, the anti-immigration party that expanded its footprint across England, Scotland and Wales as disillusioned voters increasingly turned toward nationalist and insurgent political movements.With nearly all ballots counted, Labour lost almost 1,400 council seats in England and relinquished control of several local authorities.

Reform UK secured nearly 1,500 of the roughly 5,000 council seats contested, while the Green Party also posted strong gains with more than 500 seats won.The outcome was particularly severe in Wales, where Labour lost control of the devolved government for the first time since the Welsh parliament was established in 1999.

Nationalist party Plaid Cymru emerged as the largest political force, followed by Reform UK, with Labour falling to third place.In Scotland, the Scottish National Party retained its position as the largest party but failed to secure an outright majority, winning six fewer seats than in the previous regional elections in 2021.

Although Labour’s performance in London was less damaging than some party officials had feared, the broader results underscored mounting public unease over the government’s economic record and a series of policy reversals and political controversies since taking office.

The election setback comes as British households continue to face persistent cost-of-living pressures, sluggish economic growth and strained public services, conditions that have increasingly benefited smaller opposition parties and anti-establishment movements.

Muslim and Jewish community organisations in Britain say recent violence targeting Jewish residents in north London has reinforced the importance of long-term interfaith work, even as rising fear and tensions linked to the conflict in the Middle East make that work more difficult.

The latest concerns followed the alleged attempted murder of two Jewish men in Golders Green, an area of north London with a large Jewish population. Community leaders said the incident has deepened anxiety within British Jewish communities already facing heightened tensions since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Laura Marks, co-founder of Nisa-Nashim, a Jewish-Muslim women’s network established eight years ago, said repeated incidents of violence have left many community organisers emotionally exhausted.“I feel punch drunk,” Marks said. “Every day it feels like there is something else. It’s relentless.”

Nisa-Nashim was created to bring Jewish and Muslim women together through social gatherings, dialogue and community events aimed at reducing distrust and stereotypes between the two faith communities. The organisation’s founders said the goal was to strengthen local relationships that could withstand political tensions generated by international conflict.

Marks said incidents such as the Golders Green attack can feel discouraging for groups that have spent years working to improve community cohesion.“I do sometimes despair,” she said. “But if I don’t believe I can make things a bit better, then what am I doing?”She said the purpose of such organisations is not to address violent extremism directly, but to counter the wider social consequences of conflict, including fear, suspicion and growing separation between ordinary people.

“A lot of this work is not designed to address extreme radicalisation,” she said. “The aim is to help ordinary Jews and Muslims acknowledge their similarities as well as their differences, whether culture, history, scripture or food.”According to Marks, the conflict that followed the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel made this work significantly harder.

As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensified and public debate in Britain became more polarised, support for interfaith initiatives weakened.She said some volunteers withdrew after experiencing online abuse or extremist threats, while others felt demoralised or faced pressure from family members who questioned participation in cross-community projects.

At present, she said, the immediate focus for many Jewish communities is physical security.“Right now, all people can hear is walls, police, security,” Marks said. “I understand that. It’s like a hierarchy of needs: if we are not safe, we can’t do anything else.”But she warned that permanent separation cannot be the long-term answer.“Long term, we can’t live behind walls,” she said.

“We have to build relationships.”Mohammed Amin, co-chair of the Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester, said he felt “horror and dismay” when he learned of the Golders Green attack. The forum, established more than two decades ago, brings Muslim and Jewish communities together through shared social events and dialogue.Amin said its work has produced practical improvements in local community relations by encouraging understanding and trust.

“People get to know each other,” he said. “We have seen real friendships emerge.”The group regularly organises visits, meals and cultural exchanges. Amin pointed to an upcoming visit to a kosher-halal fish and chip restaurant in Leeds, staffed by both Muslims and Jews, as an example of how ordinary social interaction can reduce suspicion and build familiarity.“You can’t change the course of international politics,” he said.

“But these things help change the atmosphere and defuse tension.”Amin, a businessman and former Conservative Party member who is now affiliated with the Liberal Democrats, said responsibility for improving cohesion cannot rest entirely with charities and volunteers. He argued political leadership is essential in shaping public attitudes.“Some politicians in our society trade on sowing division and resentment,” he said.

He cited comments made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage following the Southport riots in 2024 as an example of rhetoric that can inflame tensions rather than reduce them.“If politicians are going to pour petrol on the flames, do not be surprised by the outcome,” Amin said.

Community organisations say funding for interfaith programmes remains limited despite growing concern over social division. Marks said government investment in cohesion work is often overlooked compared with visible security responses, despite its importance in preventing long-term fragmentation.“At the core of what we do is mixing people, bringing people together,” she said.

“This is social cohesion at the coalface.”She argued that while police protection and community security measures are necessary, they should not replace investment in trust-building between communities.Amin said tensions between Jewish and Muslim communities in Britain often rise and fall depending on developments in the Middle East, but local relationships can help reduce the impact of those external pressures.

For him, interfaith work is less about solving geopolitical conflict and more about preserving the everyday social fabric of British cities.“If you increase connectivity, you decrease hostility,” he said. “The key is to recognise we are all ordinary human beings.”

Speaking before greeting Charles and Queen Camilla at a 9/11 memorial event in New York, Mamdani said he would urge the king to return the historic gemstone, which was taken from the Indian subcontinent during British colonial rule in the 19th century.

“If I was to speak to the king, separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond,” Mamdani said, while adding that the focus of the event remained honoring those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.It was not immediately clear whether Mamdani raised the issue directly during his brief exchange with Charles, who was seen speaking and laughing with the mayor after the two shook hands at the memorial ceremony.

The Koh-i-Noor, a 106-carat diamond housed in the Tower of London, is among the most prominent jewels in Britain’s Crown Jewels and is mounted in the crown made for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.The gem’s ownership has been disputed for generations.

It passed through the hands of Mughal emperors, Persian rulers and Sikh maharajas before it was ceded to Queen Victoria in 1849 under the Treaty of Lahore following the annexation of Punjab by the British Empire.India has repeatedly sought the return of the diamond, arguing it was taken under colonial rule, though British governments have consistently rejected those requests.

Other countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, have also laid claim to the stone, citing historical ownership ties dating back centuries.The comments quickly drew criticism from Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, whose home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf described Mamdani’s remarks as an insult to the monarch.

“This beautiful diamond is currently on display in the Tower of London,” Yusuf wrote on X. “That is where it will stay.”Debates over colonial-era artifacts have intensified globally in recent years, with former imperial powers facing growing pressure to return culturally significant objects to their countries of origin.

Charles’ visit to New York included a memorial tribute to victims of the 2001 attacks and meetings with local leaders, amid broader efforts to strengthen diplomatic and symbolic ties between Britain and the United States.