The Green Party’s candidate for Hackney mayor is facing criticism for refusing to sign a letter commending the Metropolitan Police following the Golders Green knife attacks last month.
Cllr Zoë Garbett, who co-leads the Green Party in Hackney, raised objections to a proposed letter from the London Assembly’s police and crime committee. The letter praised police officers for their “swift response” to the anti-Semitic attacks on April 29.
As first reported by the Telegraph, Garbett, who is also an Assembly Member for Londonwide and sits on the committee, objected to “video footage which looks like two officers kicking the attacker in the side of the head after he has been tasered”. She also raised concerns that the letter did not mention the arson and violent attacks on the Jewish community, nor the Met’s proposed action on this.
Her objections meant the draft letter from the committee’s Labour chairman could not be sent to Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley because it required all members to agree on the wording. In messages seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Cllr Garbett added that it was “highly inappropriate for a letter of this nature to be sent during the pre-election period”. She also said the letter should address “how the attacker had stabbed someone in south London” prior to the attacks in Golders Green, which left two men hospitalised.
Her comments have invited attacks from the local Labour Party, which is defending its control of the council against the Greens at the local elections on Thursday, May 7. In a statement, Hackney Labour said the comments were a “slap in the face to police officers who acted quickly to save lives”.
“At this time of rising anti-Semitic hate crime, we have a duty to show support to our Jewish community. We are disappointed that Ms Garbett has instead decided to focus on criticising the officers who acted to save Jewish lives,” the party said. “Zack Polanski has been forced to apologise for this issue, Zoë Garbett should too,” the statement added.
But the Greens have defended Garbett’s “dissent” to the wording of the letter. Speaking to the LDRS, a spokesperson suggested that she had not blocked the letter but proposed changes that were rejected by the chair. “Zoë Garbett’s current job as an Assembly Member is to ask questions about how the police act and to make sure what they do is in line with the standards the public has for them. This is exactly what she’s done here,” the spokesperson said.
“She shares the committee's concern about both rising anti-Semitic hate crime and the safety of Jewish Londoners. However, she believes this letter should place greater emphasis on scrutiny of the police regarding this incident and the Prevent programme. This shows Labour are not serious about investigating why police failed to prevent these attacks after a series of incidents in the area targeting the Jewish community,” the spokesperson said.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski apologised on Friday (May 1) after he was similarly criticised for reposting a message on X accusing officers of “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser”. In an official police statement, Sir Mark Rowley had rebuked Mr Polanski for intensifying “inaccurate and misinformed commentary” and “intervening in operational policing”.
The Greens’ leader said it “wasn’t appropriate” for him to share the post. However, he said police should “not be above scrutiny” and criticised Sir Mark for writing the open letter which “was not an appropriate way to do politics either in a local election”.
The alleged attacker, Essa Suleiman, 45, has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed in Golders Green on April 29, and another man, Ishmail Hussein, was attacked in Southwark the same day. He has been remanded in custody until a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on May 15. Both Mr Shine and Mr Rand have been discharged from hospital.
