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Haringey Labour celebrations

Labour hail diversity as they celebrate different kind of historic win in Haringey

After historic results across London for Labour on Thursday night, there was a different kind of history made by the party in Haringey the following day.

A safe Labour seat, it was no surprise to see Labour win comfortably, securing 50 of the 57 seats on offer, with the Liberal Democrats claiming the remaining seven.

However, the results were historic for a different reason, as Labour elected their first Haringey trans councillor Tammy Hymas, and their first councillor of Somali descent in the borough, Ibrahim Ali.

Council leader Peray Ahmet, praised the number of firsts and hailed the diversity of her party.

She said: “We will welcome and support new communities as we have always done including migrants and refugees.

“We will celebrate our diversity -our greatest strength, by setting up events and festivals that bring us together.

“As a local working class, ethnic minority woman I am used to people not listening to me when I speak or trying to speak for me and that’s why I’m committed to making sure the council changes under my leadership. 

“It’s such a privilege to be standing here today. I am Haringey born and bred, I grew up in WoodGreen, went to school here, and now I’m raising my family here. 

“Through their inaction the government have made it clear that we are on our own here. But we have never waited around for the Tories to take action on important issues because we’d be waiting a very long time.  

Things also got slightly heated between Ahmet and the Liberal Democrats, led by Luke Crawley-Harrison.

Ahmet mentioned the austerity program the Lib Dems helped usher in over a decade ago. 

She said: “They’re sick of hearing it from us and I would be too if my party had set in motion austerity measures that devastated public sector funding and the lives of local people all in the name of social re-engineering. 

“That’s the words of the UN, not me.” 

Crawley-Harrison said: “Unfortunately although the national Lib Dem results have been incredibly strong over the last 24 hours, the significant anti-Tory tide has hurt us in Haringey, where people felt that the way that they could send a message to this awful government was by voting for Labour.

“Despite today’s result my colleagues will continue putting forward the case for a liberal Haringey and will work hard right across the borough for the next four years; the Liberal Democrats have bounced back from disappointing results before and I have no doubt that we will do so again. 

“Regardless of whether people voted Liberal Democrat, Labour or elsewhere today, they all want the same thing: councillors that work hard for them, day in, day out, every single year. I really hope that all of us can do that.” 

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