Labour's Caroline Woodley elected as Hackney Mayor

Hackney borough has elected its first ever female mayor, Labour's Caroline Woodley.

Caroline has been a Labour ward councillor in Cazenove since 2018, and has spent two years as a Cabinet Member in Hackney Council, currently working on Families, Parks and Leisure.

She is the borough’s third directly elected mayor succeeding Philip Glanville, who resigned from the post in September after a picture of him at a party with a convicted paedophile emerged.

The election turnout was 20.69% of the 180,205 electorate. Woodley won a total of 18,474 votes, and the candidate with the next highest votes was the Green's Zoe Garbett with 9,075.

In her Cabinet position, Caroline has overseen transformation projects in Abney, Shoreditch and Springfield parks, renovation of seven children's play areas, and helped to create 300 school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Caroline 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 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.”