BREAKING: Green Party announces candidates for London Mayoral and Assembly election

The Green Party of England and Wales today announced its candidates for the London Mayoral and Assembly elections.
Mayoral election
The party’s co-leader Sian Berry has been selected to fight the mayoral election and will attempt to unseat the sitting mayor Sadiq Khan. Berry was the Greens’ candidate in both 2008 and 2016. In 2016, she came third, picking up 5.8% of the vote.
Berry is a member of the London Assembly, having been first elected in 2016. She is also a twice elected councillor in Camden.
Berry fended off three other candidates to win the party’s nomination. She beat the party’s former Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali, Croydon Green Party’s former chair Peter Underwood, and the former Liberal Democrat campaigner Zack Polanski.
On her victory, Berry said:
The Green Party is the only party Londoners can trust to deliver on its promises.
In a victory speech she is also expected to say:
The Green Party has a proud history of getting results for London. When we make Londoners a promise, we deliver, and have made real changes even when we are not Mayor.
In 2016 we promised to give power to residents whose homes faced demolition, and we delivered on that promise. Now we pledge to give Londoners a say on land use in their city.
London Greens listen to what Londoners need and we act on it. That’s why we believe everyone in London should have an affordable, secure and warm home. But across the capital empty buildings like office blocks and car parks are left unused – while Londoners struggle to pay the rent or wait for years to get social housing. That isn’t right, and we have to start planning now for how we bring these underused spaces and empty land back into use.
Assembly election
Alongside the announcement of the Mayoral candidate, the Greens also revealed their candidates for the “list” element of the London Assembly elections. The list is the part of the Assembly that is elected through a proportional system.
Sian Berry was also selected to top the Greens’ list for the elections. She will be joined by her fellow sitting Assembly member Caroline Russell.
Also near the top of the list are Zack Polanski, and the co-chair of LGBTIQA+ Greens Benali Hamdache.
The full list is:
- Sian Berry – co leader of the Green Party, member of the London Assembly
- Caroline Russell – member of the London Assembly, Green Party Transport Spokesperson
- Zack Polanski – Liberal Democrat London Assembly candidate in 2016
- Benali Hamdache – co-chair of the LGBTIQA+ Greens
- Gulnar Hasnain – general election candidate for Vauxhall 2015 and 2017
- Shahrar Ali – former deputy leader of the Green Party
- Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah – air pollution campaigner, candidate in the Lewisham East by-election 2018
- Ben Fletcher – general election candidate for Putney 2017
- Scott Ainslie – councillor in Lambeth
- Hannah Graham – former co-chair of the Young Greens
- Peter Underwood – former chair of Croydon Green Party, former member of the Green Party Regional Council
As the list element of the London Assembly is elected through a proportional system, Greens have historically won between two and three seats on the Assembly. A modest increase in vote share, could see the party elect up to four or even five Assembly members. This means that Berry, Russell, Polanski, Hamdache and Hasnain could all see themselves enter city hall in 2020.
I think it is shocking that a man as talented as Shahrar Ali has been knocked back again. How are we supposed to attract people outside of the narrow white british group if a man of his talents keeps getting knocked back multiple times for both Mayor and a decent place on list an intelligent determined guy and great speaker. I feel ashamed of out party.
the thing that’s striking though, that shahrar’s fans are, with a few exceptions, all people who have not worked with him. it’s a near-universal truth that anyone who works with him knows how difficult he is, how much of a self-promoter he is, how he cannot work as a team… and his recent siding with anti-trans elements outside the party has only accelerated his downfall.
put simply – your answer as to why he has been ‘knocked back’ again in a democratic vote – the more people get to know him – the less popular he is. worth saying there are much more talented BME people who represent the diversity of the UK, further up the list than him.
if he was as great you think, he’d be higher on the list.
That is interesting that former member finds shahrar hard to work with but that does nt effect that most of the Green party voters who have not voted him in would not be aware of him personally. He is undeniably a good speaker and a good communicator and if given a chance it could only attract more people BME members in even if it did nt work out i can only comment on his public abilities as i dont know him personally unlike you.
One of the people higher than Shahrar on the list is Zack Polanski is a former Liberal Democrat and some one who acording to guido fawkes (this is a right wing blog but look up the story there) has taken part in activities that any feminist or feminist sympathiser would find troubling. That some one like him could be picked above shahrar gives a pause for thought whether anyone who knows Shahrar gets on with him personally or not.
“A modest increase in vote share, could see the party elect up to four or even five Assembly members.” Parties that get no constituency AMs and rely on the list vote, since 2000, have received 5.3% for one seat and 6.5% to 8.6% to get 2 seats. It’s been 11.1% and 11.2% when parties have received 3 seats, 14.8% with 4 seats (Lib Dems in 2000), and 16.9% with 5 seats (Lib Dems in 2004). So yes, a gain of 3% on 2016 would mean electing a third Green AM. But a gain of 6% for 4 AMs or over 8% for 5 AMs?
It very much depends on what happens to UKIP. If they drop below the 5% threshold, that puts an additional list seat up for grabs.
Is the complete breakdown of the mayoral candidate nomination vote available?
Will be this weekend