London Mayor Candidates

Caroline Russell has today launched her campaign to become the Green Party candidate for the London Mayor in 2016, joining Sian Berry and Tom Chance, who have already announced their intentions to stand. All three of them are also standing for selection for the Green Party list for the London Assembly election.

Nominations in the London Green Party’s selection process for Mayor and Assembly candidates open today, and the final decisions are due to be announced on 2nd September. Every one of the more that 10,000 members of the London Green Party will be able to vote between 3rd and 30th August.

Here is some more information on each of the candidates who have so far put themselves forward as Green candidates for London Mayor.

 

Sian Berry

Sian Berry has been a Green councillor for Camden Council since 2014, and was the London Mayor candidate in 2008—an election that saw the Greens move from seventh place to fourth place, and saw her endorsed by the Observer and the Independent, as well as groups ranging from Socialist Resistance to the Federation of Small Businesses. She has campaigned on issues including community services and social housing cuts, and has worked with various grassroots campaigns in London. She has been the former national campaigns co-ordinator and principle speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales.

Sian said: ‘London needs a new kind of politics. For too long this city has been run for the powerful and privileged, and now it is in crisis thanks to inequality, dirty air and a broken housing system.’ She said that she would work with communities, movements and campaigns to ‘create an open, tolerant city that celebrates diversity.’

As London Mayor, she said she would prioritise issues around air pollution—reducing traffic, making cycling safer, and reversing the increases in the cost of public transport—and housing—working to control rent costs, cracking down on empty properties, and making sure ‘we get the new generation of social housing we need.’

You can find her campaign website here.

 

Tom Chance

Tom Chance is the Green Party’s national spokesperson for housing and joint-coordinator of the London Green Party. For the past six years, Tom has worked at City Hall researching housing, the economy and climate change for Green Assembly Members Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson. He has also campaigned on air pollution, helping tenants resist eviction and the demolition of their council estates, and for the living wage. He stood in the recent General Election as the candidate for Lewisham West and Penge, coming third with 8.5% of the vote.

Tom said: ‘Greens working with campaigns and community groups can take London back from the speculators leaving flats empty and the developers building unaffordable homes. I will be a voice for every tenant facing rent hikes or eviction, every council estate facing demolition, and every first-time buyer fed up with being priced out by buy-to-let landlords.’

Tom has unveiled three policies to ‘take London back’: setting up a housing co-operative across London to help council tenants take control of their estate regeneration, and help other communities build affordable homes; seizing empty investor flats and renting them out on secure tenancies; and giving every Londoner a £10 stake in a new solar energy co-operative.

You can find his campaign website here.

 

Caroline Russell

Caroline Russell is the sole opposition councillor on the otherwise solidly Labour Islington Council, and is the Green Party’s national spokesperson for local transport. She has also worked with walking and cycling activists and clean air campaigners. During her 30 years living in London, she has been been an artist and college lecturer, a cycle courier, a civil engineering student, a school governor, community activist and has raised a family. She stood in the recent General Election as the candidate for Islington North, coming third with 10.2% of the vote.

Caroline said: ‘If elected as the Green Party’s Mayoral candidate I will promote London as an example to the world of how economic prosperity can go hand in hand with a green revolution that radically improves the quality of the homes we live in, the streets we use and the air we breathe.’

‘These priorities demand serious innovation – but London is the most innovative city in the world. London’s dynamic economy should turn its focus to the challenge of delivering a transformation in housing, cleaner air and safer, greener less traffic dominated streets. London has the chance to be at the forefront of a worldwide revolution in green technology and social innovation, and all Londoners will benefit.’

You can find her campaign website here.