Labour says Hackney Greens broke a pledge by appointing a paid whip

Labour has accused Hackney’s Green group of breaking an election promise. Its complaint is that the Greens gave one of their councillors a whip role that comes with an extra allowance of £6,724.20 for 2026/27.

The row reached the council chamber on Wednesday 23 September 2026. On Monday 21 September, Labour councillor Ben Lucas had written on X to the Green mayor, Zoë Garbett, about Green councillor George Sheldon Grün becoming the group’s convener.

Labour says the convener is a whip by another name

In his post, Lucas said the mayor had praised the savings made by having a smaller Cabinet. He also said the Greens had campaigned openly against using a whip system to organise councillors. He asked her to explain why a majority group whip had been appointed, what the job involves and whether it pays an extra allowance from public funds.

At the meeting, Lucas argued that convener and whip were in practice the same job. He said residents could find the appointment “confusing” and “hypocritical”. The council’s website lists Grün’s role as majority group whip. The members’ allowance sheet for 2026/27 gives that post an extra £6,724.20.

Greens say the role saves Hackney money

Cllr Ülgen Semerci replied for the Greens. She is the majority group’s secretary and chairs the corporate committee. She accepted that the convener’s post is the closest thing the group has to a whip. She said Grün handles council business that needs each group to have a whip, such as cross-party talks before full council meetings. She added that the word also appears in documents such as the special responsibility allowance.

On cost, she said the group’s leader and deputy leader draw allowances as committee chairs, not for leading the group. That leaves the convener as the only member of the leadership paid for a leadership role. Measured against a £12,000 leadership budget, she told councillors, the Greens were saving residents another £6,000. Taking Grün’s £6,724.20 away from £12,000 actually leaves £5,275.80.

Semerci said the Greens would work with opposition councillors to replace the word whip with convener in the council’s internal wording. In her view, the usual whip system depends on coercion and discipline. She said the Green approach tries to reach consensus where it can and gives weight to pastoral care for councillors, who work in high-stress jobs.

Lucas replied that whatever the Greens said, taxpayers were paying for a political post the party had campaigned against needing.