Tyrone Scott

The election for the next deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales has just stepped up a gear. Hackney based Tyrone Scott is  standing in this summer’s election, Bright Green and Left Foot Forward can exclusively reveal.

Scott was one of the Greens’ candidates in Dalston in the 2022 Hackney Borough Council elections. While his co-candidate Zoë Garbett was elected, Scott fell short. He is now standing in a by-election for De Beauvoir ward in Hackney which will take place in July.

Outside of electoral politics, Scott is known for his public campaigning, particularly around housing issues and on climate justice. On the latter, Scott’s most high profile moment came at the close of the COP26 summit in Glasgow. Attending the conference as a delegate for the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Scott disrupted its final moments, storming the stage and declaring “COP26 has been a failure” before Alok Sharma was due to announce the deal that had been agreed. His work with FYEG built on his past involvement in the Green Party’s youth wing – the Young Greens – where he served as campaigns and communications officer from 2019-20.

Scott was previously an adviser for housing charity Shelter, where his work included helping those made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire. He now advises small charities, including those working to address climate change.

Speaking on his decision to stand, Scott told Bright Green, 

I’m running for Deputy Leader of The Green Party of England and Wales because we are in a critical moment in time, with the climate crisis on the precipice of a tipping point, with the cost of living soaring and deep inequalities widening. What we need is urgent action now, action that speaks louder than words. I want to represent a Green Party that fights for all forms of social justice, that secures radical change and builds on our platform to create a real Green Revolution.

He added,

I’ve worked in housing for seven-and-a-half years providing frontline housing advice and organising for communities fighting for change and I have seen the increase of homelessness and bad housing. The Green Party needs to link the lived experience of people in our communities to our principles about social and environmental justice. We need to take action with workers demanding a better standard of living, take action with migrants and refugees against deportations and the hostile environment, take action against the greed and short sightedness in corporations and the government institutions they’ve captured. We need to inspire activists to win elections and we need to inspire the public with our active stand for a better world that we know is possible when we decide the time for talk is over and the time for action to build it is now.

Bright Green understands that Scott will be launching a more comprehensive platform in the coming weeks.

Scott is the second candidate to announce their intention to stand in the election. London Assembly member Zack Polanski launched his campaign on June 6, pledging to deliver a ‘breakthrough’ for the Greens with up to five MPs at the next general election.

Earlier this year, Amelia Womack confirmed she would not be seeking re-election for the post, having served in it for eight years.

Nominations for the deputy leader election close on June 30, with members voting throughout the summer. Elections for the deputy leadership of the party take place every two years.

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This article was jointly published with Left Foot Forward.