Amelia Womack and Shahrar Ali express their delight at being elected as the Party’s Deputy Leaders, both having run as London Green MEP candidates earlier this year.
Team London Green Party after the declaration of London MEPs. From left: Noel Lynch, Tracey Hague, Danny Bates, Amelia Womack, Jean Lambert, RoseMary Warrington (hidden), Caroline Allen, Violeta Vajda, Ben Duncan, Laura Davenport, Chris Smith, Shahrar Ali, Steve Lambert
The Green Party have today announced that Amelia Womack and Shahrar Ali have been elected as the Party’s new Deputy Leaders.
Having already served for two years in the post, Natalie Bennett has been returned as Leader.
Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett, said: “I look forward to working with Amelia and Shahrar. As a team we will look, sound and be different to the other party leaderships – reflecting the Green Party promise of a politics that works for the common good, not just for the few.
Both Amelia and Shahrar were London Green Party candidates for the European Parliament elections earlier this year, and supported the successful re-election of London’s Green MEP Jean Lambert. They were elected in a nationwide ballot of Green Party members.
Deputy Leader, Amelia Womack, is a member of the Young Greens’ 30 Under 30 programme to develop young activists and candidates. The 29-year-old is originally from Newport in Wales and now lives in Lambeth in South London, where she was a European Parliament and Borough Council candidate earlier this year.
New Green Party requirements put in place by members in 2013 meant that for the first time two Deputies were elected, and proscribed that the two deputies must be of different self-defined genders. As Amelia Womack and Shahrar Ali polled first and second, however, this requirement did not affect the outcome of the election.
Natalie added that she wished to thank outgoing deputy leader Cllr Will Duckworth “for all of his hard work over the past two years and congratulate everyone in the strong field of deputy leadership candidates for offering party members such a strong, healthy choice in the election.”
Amelia commented: “I am delighted to have been elected as Deputy Leader of the Green Party to give an even stronger voice for young people at a time when so many of us are feeling that the main parties are happy to sell our futures down the line to protect the interests of big business and the rich. Polling last week found that a record 18% of young people would vote Green, and Green Party membership of young people has grown phenomenally by over 70% since the start of the year. The Green Party is the only party that takes our future seriously, with policies to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, tackle spiralling inequality, and offer free higher education so that every young person can get a strong start in life.”
Deputy Leader Dr Shahrar Ali trained as a biochemical engineer then as a philosopher. He entered green politics after working as a researcher in the European Parliament on the risk of GM foods. He is author of Why Vote Green, an impassioned call for environmental action in the 21st century.
Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali said, “I am honoured and thrilled at being given the opportunity to play a leading role in advancing Green politics nationally. Ours is the only politics worthy of the cause. We must take active responsibility for our stewardship of the planet for the sake of our children, our children’s children and nonhuman animals, too. We must look after the most vulnerable and impoverished in society first, instead of protecting big bank crooks. Greens are on a mission to improve quality of life without costing the earth, coming to a ballot box near you!”