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Home Office rebukes Hackney’s Green Party mayor over immigration enforcement claims
EXCLUSIVE: Zoe Garbett had boasted at a meeting of Hackney Council of non-cooperation with Home Office over immigration enforcement in the borough
The Home Office has rebuked Hackney Green Party Mayor Zoe Garbett after she declared her council would refuse any cooperation with immigration enforcement activities.
Garbett used her Mayor’s Speech at Tuesday night’s full council meeting to boast:“Hackney Council does not facilitate any immigration enforcement actions, nor work with the Home Office, and never will under my administration.”
The mayor also used the same speech to promote the Greens inflammatory move to end a decades old twinning arrangement with the Israeli city of Haifa.
Garbett then bragged:”This is about who we are as a council, what we condone, who we work with, and what that says about who we are.”
But in a sharp response, a Home Office spokesperson insisted that local opposition would not deter national operations, telling Jewish News: “Immigration enforcement visits are vital for rooting out unscrupulous employers and disrupting illegal working practices that undermine the system.
“While we always prefer cooperation from local authorities, our teams will not be hindered by political decisions at council level.”
One senior council insider also accused Garbett of “more performative nonsense” over her claim of non-compliance with the Home Office over immigration enforcement.
They added:”Performative nonsense over the Haifa de-twinning that won’t help a single Palestinian, and now this, more nonsense from Garbett and the Greens that actually puts the ordinary citizens of Hackney at risk.”
The Home Office also cited new figures showing a dramatic escalation in activity since the current government took office, including an 83% rise in arrests for illegal working and a 77% surge in workplace raids between July 2024 and December 2025.
Hackney, like several London boroughs, has experienced a range of offences occasionally linked to individuals with insecure or undocumented immigration status.
While the majority of migrants contribute positively to their communities, Home Office and police reports have cited several types of crime associated with illegal migration in the borough.
Raids have taken place on unlicensed car washes, nail bars, and restaurants in Hackney which have uncovered cases where undocumented workers were being exploited—often paid below minimum wage and working in unsafe conditions.
In some cases, employers faced prosecution for facilitating illegal working.
Hackney police and the National Crime Agency have also conducted operations uncovering victims of trafficking—often undocumented migrants—forced into labor or sex work.
A 2025 operation led to the rescue of several women trafficked from Eastern Europe and Africa, with perpetrators convicted of modern slavery offences.
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