As the results for last week’s UK local elections came in, one thing became abundantly clear: the Green Party, which campaigned on a pro-Palestine stance, is a serious threat to the governing Labour Party.
Many commentators - and even recently defeated Labour councillors - ridiculed voters for thinking local elections could lead to policy improvements on Palestine . But campaigners and Green Party council hopefuls in London were clear about one area where local authorities could exert influence: pensions.
“This is one of the most effective things we can do,” Sussan Rassoline, Secretary of the Hackney branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), said of pension divestment.
In England, local councils control investment funds worth millions of pounds. These pay the pensions of all council workers, from cleaners and social workers to councillors themselves. The funds often include investments in weapons manufacturers , including companies complicit in Israeli war crimes.
That’s why, as Israel’s war on Gaza moves firmly into its third year, London Green Party branches put pension divestment - removing unethical companies from investment portfolios - in their manifestos.
In the East London borough of Hackney, the strategy seems to have worked. The Greens won 40 of Hackney’s 57 seats - up from three before the 2026 election - and the mayoralty.
This indicates a major shift in British progressive politics. Hackney has long been considered one of the centre-left Labour Party’s safest boroughs, but Labour now holds just nine council seats there - far below the 27 it won in 1968, previously its worst result in the borough.
“The Greens actively campaigned in some of their material about Gaza, about Palestine, and about disinvestment,” Tony Travers, a local government specialist at the London School of Economics (LSE) told The New Arab . “And it will have won votes for them.”
Hackney council has £106 million invested in companies that operate in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, or provide arms and technology to the Israeli military, according to data from the PSC.
The companies highlighted include arms dealer BAE Systems, surveillance company Palantir, and Airbnb , which lists hundreds of properties on Israeli-occupied Palestinian land for short-term holiday rentals.
In response, campaigners have been calling for the council to divest from these companies, including in a two-month encampment outside Hackney Town Hall in 2024. In May 2025, then-Labour Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley, said the council had met with campaigners and listened to their concerns.
However, multiple campaigners told The New Arab that the Labour council did not take any serious action towards divestment, despite the meetings.
Across the borough border to the west, Labour-run Islington council have made more effort to divest. In January, the council switched their banking provider to Lloyds from Barclays, which, according to the PSC, helps Israel fund its genocide in Gaza by selling government bonds on the international market.
The council is also in the process of ending pension investments in companies listed by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in her report on corporate complicity in Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine.
The list includes companies which operate on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, those which provide arms and technology to the Israeli military, and those which fund the Israeli government and other complicit companies.
However, according to data from the PSC, the value of Islington council’s investments in arms manufacturers and companies that operate on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank has increased by £340,000 since 2024.
Councillor for Caledonian ward in Islington, Paul Convery, says this increase is caused by an overall increase in the value of the council’s pension fund. At a Palestine-focused hustings, a public Q&A for candidates, he also explained why divesting is not as simple as selling shares.
“We don’t actually own any shares in any company. We have units in pooled funds alongside dozens and dozens of other investors,” Councillor Convery said. “You need to assemble a package of divestment which is justifiable, that has criteria, evidence, there’s methodology behind it.”
These decisions are made by the council’s pensions committee, chaired by Councillor Convery. Recently re-elected Green Party councillor for Highbury in Islington, Benali Hamdache, says that a spot on the pensions committee was one of the Green Party’s top three demands in Islington.
Before the 2026 election, however, the Labour Party denied their membership, saying the Greens did not have enough councillors to be on every committee. The recent election results now mean Green Party councillors will be able to take part.
“We’ll be able to do so much more with a group of 19 councillors on Islington council to hold the pension fund accountable,” Councillor Hamdache told The New Arab . “Now, our bigger group allows us to be there at the forefront, scrutinising the financial decisions being made.”
In Islington, Labour retained 33 council seats but lost 16 to the Green Party. While those results may not be something for Islington Labour to celebrate, maintaining control of the council is a win for the party compared to the near-total wipeout in Hackney.
“Such a strong showing for the Green Party across North London is indicative that residents, alongside other issues, hold [divestment] really dear to them,” Councillor Hamdache told The New Arab . “It was a winning formula.” The New Arab contacted Hackney and Islington councils for comment, but they did not respond. Kitty Grant is an editorial and research assistant at The New Arab Follow her on Instagram