Islington Green Party announces Talia Hussain will run in Highbury
Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor in Highbury since 2014, has announced that she will not be standing for re-election at next year’s local elections. Caroline will have served 3 terms, for a total of 12 years. She will continue to serve on the London Assembly.
Islington Green Party has selected Dr Talia Hussain to stand in Highbury in 2026. Talia is a designer, researcher, consultant and entrepreneur, specialising in (un)sustainability and social impact in the garment industry. She has a PhD from Loughborough University and an MBA from Imperial College, London. She is an active community volunteer, campaigning for people-friendly streets – particularly chairing a local charity to help set up resident-led street associations.
Cllr Caroline Russell said “It has been the honour of my life to serve my local community. Working with residents, councillors can and do make a real difference to people’s lives, and it’s been a joy to help our community, tenants’ and residents’ groups and my neighbours.
“I will have been a councillor for 12 years in 2026. After the Green Party’s brilliant local election results up and down the country last week, this is the right moment to let a new generation of voices come up in Islington. I will be stepping back from the council to focus on my role in the London Assembly, but also to work hard to deliver more Green councillors than ever at the next local elections, in Islington and across London.”
Talia Hussain added “I’m really grateful to Green Party members for selecting me to run in Highbury. I’m lucky to have been working with Benali, Ernestas and Caroline for a decade now – helping with both community and council campaigns. Caroline’s will be huge shoes to fill but I promise to bring the same hardworking and focused spirit to the Town Hall and the local community that she has brought every day of the week.”
“The next local elections promise to be another big shift. Last week’s local election results showed how unhappy and disappointed voters are with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I believe people in Islington want to see constructive solutions to issues like housing and reducing emissions. I’ll be working hard, alongside the rest of Islington Greens, to provide that positive vision for the borough.”
Caroline was elected by an eight vote margin in 2014, in an election where the Lib Dems were wiped out of the council and the Labour Party won every other seat. For eight years Caroline served as the only opposition councillor, working hard to hold the Labour administration to account. This was until 2022 when Cllr Benali Hamdache and Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas-Armstrong were elected to join her in Highbury ward.
Some of Caroline’s successful achievements as a councillor to date include:
- Achieving (last year) a fairer council tax policy by proposing budget amendments for many years so the least well off in the borough are not asked to pay bills they can’t afford,
- Pushing for a just approach to collecting council debts from residents, avoiding council summons and bailiffs,
- Lobbying to make it always cheaper to keep a bike in a council hangar than to park a fossil fuelled car in the borough, and for heavier and more polluting cars to pay higher parking fees,
- Supporting older people campaigning for more public toilets and to save day centre facilities,
- Raising awareness about the dangers of air pollution in the borough, and winning better policies on delivering clean air,
- Championing policies and changes to make it safer to walk, wheel and cycle around the borough, from new zebra crossings to accessible pavements,
- Persuading the council to reopen cemeteries during the pandemic, to allow residents to grieve,
- Working with young people across the borough, winning support for the council to declare a Climate Emergency, via a cross-party motion with a binding promise to deliver net zero by 2030,
- Campaigning for council meetings to be livestreamed, to allow for greater participation in local democracy,
- Exposing the council’s installation of thousands of non-fire safe doors across Islington’s estates,
- Consistently opposing the building of the new Edmonton incinerator and pushing the council to reduce overall waste,
- Working constructively, cross-party on council committees and resident casework.