An afternoon with the Leeds and Humber Young Greens

The re-launch of the Leeds and Humber branch of the Young Green party took place in a basement seminar room of the Parkinson building. I struggle to find the room at first, but a green fedora-wearing figure ushers me in. The tables are arranged in rows and the room is sparsely populated, but everyone turns and smiles as I walk in, creating a friendly atmosphere.

The demographic of the room is admittedly somewhat older for an event targeted towards the Young Greens. There are five counsellors present, a professor, and a small cluster of students from both the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett. Some young people have even travelled from their hometowns to be here, motivated by their active involvement in the young greens.

The chairs of the event, Dom and George, make it a point to introduce themselves to me when they see an ‘unfamiliar face’ and show a keen interest in my reasons for showing up today. Previously students, they chose to come back to set up and invest their time in the Leeds branch of their party. They seemed optimistic and eager about the launch event, commenting proudly on their party’s recent electoral success, where the Greens gained 74 seats and their highest ever voting share, and proclaiming that they are the only party who can ‘take on the far right’.

The event had secured the attendance and participation of five local Green Party councillors, an impressive result. Present on the panel were Mothin Ali, councillor for Gipton and Harehills; Ros Brown, councillor for Ilkley; Peter Gilbert, councillor for Ecclesall; Alex Vickers, councillor for Crosland Moor and Netherton; and Martin John Hey, councillor for Northowram and Shelf.

The councillors open with some stories about their paths into local politics. Somewhat atypically, most of them did not intend to start careers as politicians. Similarly, not all of them are lifelong Greens. Mothin Ali tells a story about being a longtime Labour supporter but seeing no choice but to turn to the Green Party after Starmer refused to attend an online Iftar celebration due to Free Palestine activists also being there. His entrance into politics truly came, however, when he stumbled into a candidate selection meeting where he was ultimately asked to stand as councillor for Gipton and Harehills. Somewhat similarly, Peter Gilbert in Ecclesall got involved in a tree-felling protest in his local area, leading to him being encouraged to stand for election. After several unsuccessful election attempts, he won by 400 votes in 2024 to beat the Liberal Democrat incumbent, saying that ‘thirty years ago he was the change; now I was the change’. Brown, Vickers, and Hey have similar stories about how they came to be in their current positions, and all the councillors similarly highlight their initial reluctance to become politicians, but how they felt they had no choice but to serve their communities.

The first question posed to the panel is a simple one: what do the councillors see as the dominant issues in their wards and how do they propose to tackle it? 

For Martin John Hey, the dominant issue in his ward is the misuse of land- it is being used to create large country houses for the rich rather than focusing on housing that would best benefit the community. Vickers harks back to her career before entering politics, saying that more time and energy should go into supporting children with SEN needs. Gilbert’s answer is refreshingly self-aware as he admits that Ecclesall is an affluent area and as such does not have any prevalent issues that come to mind. He sees this as a positive, allowing him more time to focus on nationally publicising the Green Party and focusing on ‘big-picture’ issues like the rising far-right. Brown has a similar answer for Ilkley, saying she isn’t focused on getting votes for the next election, but instead directs her energy towards minor changes desired and required by her constituents that have taken decades to come to fruition, like speed limits and a truly neurodiverse-friendly city. Ali’s answer differs from those of his fellow panel members- he admits that Harehills is one of the most deprived areas in Leeds, commenting on the ‘managed decline’ of the area in order to concentrate crime so it can eventually be ‘swallowed up’ in the expansion of the city centre. A statistic that shocks me is the fact that Gipton and Harehills have over 15000 residents under the age of nineteen but not a single secondary school. Despite this, Ali highlights the resilience and connection of his community.

The second question posed to the panel is one that was on my mind for much of the event- what is the reason for the lack of youth engagement with the Greens and what is the plan to target this? None of the five panellists try to deny the engagement issue, and see young people as the heart of the party. Brown has been visiting and writing into schools in her ward to investigate the issues preventing young people from engaging with the party. Ali describes his party as ‘really rubbish’ at engaging with young people, and Gilbert notes the stereotypes of being ‘not left enough’ or ‘not socialist enough’ that plague the party. He points to the setting up of a Green society at the university as a positive change. When asked about the Greens’ stance on collaborating with other parties despite potential ideological differences, Gilbert takes the reins and lauds Sheffield’s committee system which ensures proportional representation and utilises teamwork to most efficiently solve issues. The Greens describe themselves as a ‘collaborative party’.

When questioned on what they think should be done about the rising prevalence of the far right, it is clear the panellists see this as a pressing issue. Hey points out the uncontrollable nature of the media, and Gilbert advises to ‘write to your local press’ to make anti-fascist beliefs publicised. 

The final question the organisers allowed, before turning to a vote on the new Young Greens constitution, was perhaps the hardest one to answer. None of the other major political parties in the UK are playing nice at the moment, with Reform UK and the Conservatives’ scapegoating of migrants given as a key example of this. Do the councillors think their party is being held back by so-called playing nice? The panellists are united in their answer to this. To summarise: morals over politics. Ros Brown gives the most poignant answer, saying that resorting to those sorts of tactics would make her ‘become something that doesn’t interest me about politics’ and that ‘I want to be something different’. She also points out that it’s ‘what people can come with’, reminding us that at the end of the day, politicians are people just like us who have to deal with public scrutiny of their every move. 

The asker of that final question is 16-year-old Hannah from Cottingley, who has travelled to be here and joined the Green Party last year at just 15 years old. The Green AGM is taking place in Hull in April of this year, but she comments that we ‘need more around here’ as it can be especially difficult for young people to find time and funds to travel these long distances. When I ask her opinion on a lowered voting age as a young person so obviously engaged in politics, she responds that she thinks it ‘wouldn’t be a good thing’ due to immaturity and lack of political awareness being a real issue.

The new Young Green constitution is passed unanimously at the end of the meeting, and Amber, one of the university students in attendance, says that this event will probably prompt her to attend more Young Green events, a hopeful statement.

Words by Maja Wasielewski