Sian Berry - Green Party Mayoral Candidate
Creative Commons: RachelH_

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:

  1. Sian Berry – co leader of the Green Party, member of the London Assembly
  2. Caroline Russell – member of the London Assembly, Green Party Transport Spokesperson
  3. Zack Polanski – Liberal Democrat London Assembly candidate in 2016
  4. Benali Hamdache – co-chair of the LGBTIQA+ Greens
  5. Gulnar Hasnain – general election candidate for Vauxhall 2015 and 2017
  6. Shahrar Ali – former deputy leader of the Green Party
  7. Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah – air pollution campaigner, candidate in the Lewisham East by-election 2018
  8. Ben Fletcher – general election candidate for Putney 2017
  9. Scott Ainslie – councillor in Lambeth
  10. Hannah Graham – former co-chair of the Young Greens
  11. 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.