The Greens’ London mayoral candidate, Zoë Garbett, has joined the London Assembly after the resignation of the longstanding anti-Silvertown Tunnel campaigner Siân Berry, just days after she was re-elected to City Hall.

Berry had been an assembly member for eight years but was last year selected as the Greens’ parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, the seat currently held by former party leader Caroline Lucas.

Under the system of proportional representation used to pick London Assembly members, the Greens won three seats, with Berry first on the list and her City Hall colleagues Caroline Russell and Zack Polanski taking up the other two places in second and third.

Berry’s resignation to fight for a seat at Westminster means fourth-placed Garbett, a Hackney councillor and former NHS worker, takes her place.

“I am excited to join the assembly and get to work for Londoners,” Garbett said. “There is so much to do to improve the quality of our lives in London, stand up for people on the margins and hold the mayor to account.”

Silvertown Tunnel worksite
Siân Berry had been a longstanding campaigner against the Silvertown Tunnel Image: The Greenwich Wire

Garbett finished fourth in last Thursday’s election to be mayor, having just been beaten to third by Rob Blackie of the Liberal Democrats, who received 70 more votes. But the Greens will have three members of the 25-strong assembly compared with the Lib Dems’ two, with Blackie just missing out on a seat.

Labour will be the leading party on the assembly, which scrutinises the mayor’s policies, with 11 members, while the Conservatives will have eight and Reform UK one. 

Berry said: “Zoë has shown how much of a difference she will make in City Hall, listening to Londoners and bringing their voices into the political debate. That’s why she needs to be in this job as soon as possible. She is already a brilliant councillor and will be a brilliant assembly member for Londoners.”

Before becoming an assembly member Berry had worked for Campaign for Better Transport, where she was one of the early campaigners against the Silvertown Tunnel.

Another long-standing opponent of the tunnel, the Liberal Democrats’ Caroline Pidgeon, has stepped down after 16 years on the assembly.