Green Party announces leadership candidates

Image source, PA Media

The Green Party of England and Wales has announced the candidates for its next leadership election.

Three candidates are running to be party leader and six for deputy leader.

Members will be able to vote between 3 and 31 August with the results announced shortly after that.

The current leadership team - comprised of Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, who share the top job in an arrangement unique in British politics - are running again.

The party holds elections every two years, unlike other parties who tend to wait for a leader to resign.

Ms Berry is also the party's candidate in the London mayoral election, which has been delayed to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The candidates for leader are:

Shahrar Ali - former deputy leader

Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry - current leaders

Rosemary Sexton - Solihull councillor

The candidates for deputy leader are:

James Booth - Macclesfield general election candidate

Andrea Carey Fuller - Deptford general election candidate

Nick Humberstone - party's digital officer

Cleo Lake - Bristol city councillor

Tom Pashby - South West Hertfordshire general election candidate

Amelia Womack - current deputy leader

At the 2019 election, the party won 2.7% of the vote, up 1.1% from 2017. It has one MP, Caroline Lucas, who has represented her Brighton Pavillion seat since 2010.

Ms Lucas was the party's first leader, after it scrapped the system of having principal speakers, and is so far the party's only MP at Westminster.

Former leader Natalie Bennett, who is now a peer, said she was "proud to see such a strong and diverse group of candidates".

"As we face environmental collapse and social crisis, Britain needs a strong Green voice now more than ever.

"Greens will always speak truth to power, offering a wholly different model of a society that provides security for all while caring for this fragile, damaged planet."