with forty-nine councillors (plus the mayor) and the Conservative Party with five councillors. 2006 elections On the 4 May 2006 Hackney Council local elections the Labour Party were returned with forty-four Councillors, winning one seat and losing one. The Conservative Party formed the largest opposition party in the Council with nine Councillors, the Liberal Democrats won three seats, and for only the second time a candidate from the Green Party was elected. The Labour party majority increased in 2008, following the defection of the Liberal Democrat representative of Cazenove ward Councillor Joseph Stauber to thirty-three. History The borough was formed in 1965 from the area of the former metropolitan boroughs of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington. For most of that time it has been a Labour run authority, although there was a period of Conservative administration from 1968 to 1972 Controversies In 1990, the United Kingdom Conservative government, headed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced a poll tax, which was very unpopular. The Hackney Labour Council introduced the new tax, the Community Charge at a rate of £499 per adult resident, which was £200 higher than mandated by the Prime Minister. This contributed to the Poll Tax Riots of 1990 which subsequently broke out in Hackney, greater London and other areas of the United Kingdom. In 1996, Kingsmead Primary School head Jane Brown refused to issue tickets for pupils to attend a Romeo and Juliet ballet on grounds that it was "entirely about heterosexual love". There was a brief period when John McCafferty led a minority administration followed by a loose coalition of Hackney New Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. By the 1998 election all but two of the Hackney New Labour councillors defected to either the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives, and a coalition was launched after the council between the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and two Green Party councillors. After this there was a coalition between Labour led by Jules Pipe and the Conservatives led by Eric Ollerenshaw. After the 2002 borough elections, Labour returned as the majority party. Mark Trotter Affair In the 1990s, there was a period of changing coalitions in the government and councilors of Hackney following the Mark Trotter affair, known as "Trottergate", involving allegations of a cover up over a child abuse scandal involving Mark Trotter, a Labour activist and trade unionist who continued working in the borough despite a number