Labour incumbent Phil Glanville has been re-elected as Hackney’s mayor with a landslide of more than 42,000 votes.

He beat five other candidates with Imtiyaz Lunat for the Conservatives coming second on 7,183 votes, and Alastair Binnie-Lubbock for the Greens a fairly close third on 6,774.

Pauline Pearce for the Lib Dems secured 4,846 votes, Harini Iyengar for the Women’s Equality Party (WEP) got 2,659 and independent candidate Vernon Williams picked up 577.

In his acceptance speech Phil, who was elected mayor in 2016 after Jules Pipe stood down, thanked all the voters who put their trust in him for the next four years – as well as those who did not.

“I’ll endeavour to serve both groups,” he said.

Phil’s tally is higher than his 2016 haul of 22,595, but turnout in that poll was much lower.

He told the other candidates today: “We’ve had some incredible debates over the past couple of months, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know you and look forward to working with you.”

He added: “Politicians aren’t all the same and politics does make a difference.

“I look forward to working with everybody to make sure we have a Hackney that’s safer, fairer and more sustainable.”

Imtiyaz told the Gazette he was pleased with his campaign.

“We had a very good hard working team and we are happy with the result. We could have done better, but for now I think we are OK,” he said, before rushing off.

Alastair Binnie-Lubbock was disappointed not to have come second, as he had hoped.

“Previously there were a lot of people in Hackney who would have voted Green to make things better,” he said, “and now I think there are a lot of people who are not voting Green because they are afraid of things getting worse.

“They’ve shifted on to support Corbyn in the national picture and we saw that in the general election as well.

“I’m pretty sure every Green candidate and volunteer can be proud that we have pushed Labour on sustainability and making the borough a liveable borough where we can reclaim our streets. We are going to hold them to that, and push them for better housing and making sure the cuts from central government won’t hit the most vulnerable people – we are going to keep on that throughout this administration.”

Running for mayor hadn’t been about winning for Pauline. “We know Phil has got this,” she predicted before the results came in.

“It was about making people in the community understand and engage in politics a bit more. I try to reach those who wouldn’t normally get involved in politics or vote.

“I wanted to get the momentum and excitement up there, and help people understand why we have local politics. We always blame national politics for everything but not everything is down to national politics.

“The manifesto and policies of your local party that you elect in your local elections dictates the way we live in our boroughs. It’s about trying to explain that and I think I really did the job.”

Harini meanwhile said she was proud of the first local election campaign her party – which was set up in 2015 – has run in Hackney.

“We have brought a lot of women into politics who haven’t belonged to a party before and haven’t been politically active,” she said.

“Awareness of the WEP and what we can do for Hackney has increased because we ran in this election.

“I want to thank everyone who put their trust in me and gave me their vote. You only get one vote, and like a drop of rain it’s got the potential to do amazing things when put together with other people’s votes.

“We are at the start of developing the WEP and I think it’s really wonderful that people got to know us and trusted us.”

Vernon vowed to be more organised at the next election, but was happy with his tally of 577.

“This is the first election I haven’t knocked on any doors,” he said.

“I’m pleased 577 people voted for me. It means 577 people shared what I was campaigning about. I’m still going to pursue the same issues – the legacy of slavery and the mental health service are still important and affect a lot of people.”