Labour’s Caroline Woodley wins Hackney mayoral by-election

Labour’s Caroline Woodley has been named as the next mayor of Hackney.

The results of the by-election which took place on Thursday November 9 have revealed that Ms Woodley received 18,474 of the votes.

The position recently became available after the much-publicised resignation of its former Labour occupant, Philip Glanville.

The election turnout was 20.69% of the 180,205 electorate. A total of 37,289 ballot papers were cast of which 15,731 were postal votes. The votes were as follows.

• Simon De Deney, Liberal Democrats (1,879 votes)
• Zoë Garbett, Green Party (9,075 votes)
• Peter Smorthit, Independent (1,382 votes)
• Simche Steinberger, The Conservative Party (5,039 votes)
• Annoesjka Valent, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (1,265 votes)
• Caroline Rebecca Woodley, Labour Party (18,474 votes)

Ms Woodley is the borough’s third directly elected mayor, and first female mayor. She has been a Labour ward councillor in Cazenove since 2018, and has spent two years as a Cabinet Member in Hackney Council.

On winning the by-election Ms Woodley said: “I want to thank the people of Hackney for placing their faith in me and electing a Labour mayor of Hackney. 

“Serving this special place of solidarity and culture is the greatest honour of my life. I will work for you day and night. That's all of you.

“I will build on that legacy, with 1000 new council homes, a green new deal to tackle the climate emergency. I want to support local jobs, better customer services, and safer, healthier streets for all.”

She added: “I entered politics  five years ago. Back then, I could never have imagined I would go on to become the first woman to serve as the directly elected mayor of Hackney. I will lead our borough in that spirit of progress: proudly anti-racist, inclusive, welcoming, kind and open. A place where you can be who you are. A place for us all.”

The former mayor Mr Glanville, who was first elected as mayor in 2016, resigned in September after a photo emerged showing him at a Eurovision Party with former councillor Tom Dewey, who had been arrested over child abuse images.

In his resignation letter, Mr Glanville acknowledged he made “an error of judgement”, and reiterated his apology to “the people of Hackney, the council, and my colleagues”.

In August, Dewey was given a one-year suspended sentence after admitting possessing 1,850 indecent images of children.