Mayor of London’s first election challenger revealed

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

The first challenger to Sadiq Khan at the 2024 London mayoral election has been revealed, in the form of Green Party candidate Zoë Garbett.

Ms Garbett, a councillor representing Dalston on Hackney council, was announced by the party as its mayoral candidate this morning.

The Greens have increased their vote share at every London mayoral election since the role was created in 2000 – and have been the third-placed party since the 2012 contest.

At the 2021 election, Green candidate Sian Berry received almost 200,000 votes, 7.8 per cent, of the share.

Ms Berry, an Assembly Member (AM) at City Hall, had endorsed Ms Garbett in her bid to become the party’s candidate.

She had also received endorsements from Caroline Russell AM, and the party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas.

In May last year, Ms Garbett came second in the race to become Mayor of Hackney, receiving 17 per cent of the vote.

Writing on her campaign website for the London mayoralty, Ms Garbett said she has “held senior positions in public health as well as in adult services and children’s health service commissioning”.

During the first wave of the pandemic, Ms Garbett said she “developed protocols for health and welfare support for people seeking asylum accommodated in hotels in my London sub-region which were adopted nationally”, as well as working to improve health support for homeless people.

She added that she currently works in the NHS, tackling health inequalities.

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have not yet announced their candidates for the mayoralty. Mr Khan is standing for a third term.

Pictured top: Zoë Garbett, Green candidate for Mayor of London in 2024 (Picture: Green Party of England and Wales)