The London Borough of Hackney is a Labour Party governed inner London borough. There are currently fifty-seven seats representing twenty-one wards in the Borough. They are divided between the Labour Party with fifty; the Conservative Party with four, and Liberal Democrats three. The Borough consists of two parliamentary constituencies: Hackney North and Stoke Newington (represented by Diane Abbott) and Hackney South and Shoreditch (represented by Meg Hillier; both Labour Party Members of Parliament). The Borough is a constituent part of the North East London Assembly seat with the London Borough of Islington and London Borough of Waltham Forest currently held by Jennette Arnold AM. The Borough was a constituent part of the London constituency of the European Parliament until Brexit in 2020. Current structure The borough is one of a number of local authorities and urban areas in the UK that has a directly elected mayor. Hackney's mayor is also the political leader of the council and is supported by a cabinet, a speaker and deputy speaker and directly elected councillors (from whom the cabinet and speakers are appointed). The borough's first directly elected mayor was former local councillor Jules Pipe CBE who was returned in three successive elections before resigning in take up the position of Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, under Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Hackney's second directly elected mayor is another former councillor, Philip Glanville, who was elected in September 2016. Both mayors were elected as candidates for the Labour Party. The Speaker for the 2017-18 Municipal year is Councillor Soraya Adejare; who fulfils the civic and ceremonial duties previously undertaken by the civic mayor. The borough is currently divided into twenty-one wards; fifteen return three councillors and the remaining six return two councillors in a first past the post system of elections. The Mayor of Hackney selects approximately nine councillors to make up a cabinet who take responsibility of the governance of the Borough's civil service, and represent the mayor and council on strategic bodies such as Team Hackney, the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) Hackney Homes which manages the Borough's housing estates, and the Learning Trust, governing the provision of education within the Borough. The quasi-judicial functions of the Council called Regulatory, are carried out by exclusively back-bench Councillors. The Planning Sub-Committee and the Licensing Committee make independent decisions that oversee both the private and public sector and decide upon a wide range