Mothin Ali challenges Greens' ‘middle class' image as he enters deputy race
A Green councillor who intervened to stop rioters and received death threats for vocal support for Gaza is running to replace Zack Polanski as deputy leader of the party.
Mothin Ali, of Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds – a former Labour stronghold – said he wanted to champion working-class communities, challenge the idea of the Greens as a 'middle-class party' and ensure it represents 'a diverse Britain increasingly threatened by the far right'.
Ali, 43, said the support he got from voters in Gipton, 'a traditionally white working-class community', as well as diverse Harehills, reflected unifying concerns and his commitment to all, adding: 'We're not playing identity politics games.'
Launching his candidacy, Ali said: 'A lot of the problems white working-class communities face, a lot of ethnic minorities face, a lot of rural communities face. We're all faced by the cost of living; climate change is very real.
'We have to address climate change, we have to address poverty, we have to address the lack of opportunities, the access to good education, the health deserts where people can't get a dentist appointment, these are not ethnic minority problems. These are not working-class problems. These are problems that are structural in our society.
'We have to take care of every single person – if that means the rich have to pay a little bit more, absolutely right.'
Ali, who organised the City of Belonging event in Leeds after rioting broke out in Harehills in July 2024, said he wanted to spread the 'grassroots community organising' he had done in the city across the UK to build a 'people-powered movement'.
'We've got to keep organising our communities, regardless of whether they're black, brown, Muslim, Jewish or Christian – the common problems that we face, we face together,' he added.
Ali said the 'Overton window shifting more to the right' was creating a 'climate of fear' among his constituents in a poor area where people 'look out for one another'.
In July last year Ali was falsely accused of rioting in Harehills by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, after he intervened to stop arson and violence.
Ali said he had 'no regrets' about vocal support for Gaza in the local election victory speech in May last year, which led to him getting threats, but said he should have been 'more considered' in language he used on X after 7 October, later apologising.
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An accountant, YouTuber and permaculture teacher, Ali is the third candidate to announce their bid for the Greens' deputy leadership, after Antoinette Fernandez and Thomas Daw. The party's current deputy leader, Zack Polanski, is running for the leadership.
The Green party of England and Wales, with 859 councillors and four MPs, is positioning itself as the 'antidote' to Nigel Farage's Reform UK, which has 824 councillors and five MPs across England, Wales and Scotland.
The Greens' vote share among people aged 18 to 24 in the 2024 general election was 19%, second to Labour and ahead of Reform on 8%, while their general election vote share among minority ethnic voters rose by 9%.
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