2025 Green Party of England and Wales deputy leadership election

An internal Green Party of England of Wales election was held in August 2025 to elect either one or two deputy leaders of the party, in line with the party's constitution.^[1] It was held at the same time as the 2025 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.

2025 Green Party of England and Wales deputy leadership election

← 2022 1–30 August 2025 (2025-08-01 – 2025-08-30) 2026 →
Registered	64,581
Turnout	16,013 24.8% (12.3 pp)
Candidate Mothin Ali Rachel Millward Frank Adlington-Stringer Percentage 33.51% 22.83% 16.03% First round 5,366 3,656 2,567   Candidate Antoinette Fernandez Ani Townsend Alex Mace Percentage 9.09% 8.46% 3.43% First round 1,455 1,355 549   Candidate Ash Routh Thomas Daw Chas Warlow Percentage 3.28% 1.52% 1.00% First round 526 243 160
Previous deputy leader Zack Polanski Elected deputy leaders Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward

The incumbent deputy leader Zack Polanski, who had been in office since 2022, declined to run, instead running for the leadership position.

Background

According to the constitution of the Green Party of England and Wales, deputy leader(s) of the party are elected every two years, at the same time as the leader(s). The election due to take place in 2024 was postponed due to the UK general election following a motion passed at the party's 2023 Autumn Conference.^[2] Because of this, the leadership term will only be for one year. This election is being held concurrently with other elections to the executive of the party, including the leadership.^[3]

Electoral system

Candidates put themselves forward as individuals. The leader and deputy leader team must consist of three individuals in total: either two joint leaders and one deputy leader, or one leader and two joint deputy leaders. As a result, the number of deputy leaders to be elected depends on the outcome of the concurrent leadership election: if two individuals are elected as leader then only one deputy will be elected, but if only one individual is elected as leader then two deputies will be elected.^[4][5] In the latter scenario, the two deputy leaders must not be the same gender as each other.^[6][4]

The election is held under a instant-runoff voting system. In the event that two deputy leaders are required to be elected, a form of single transferable vote is used. After the election of the first deputy leader, all candidates of the same gender as the first-elected deputy leader are eliminated and their vote preferences redistributed, thereby ensuring that the second-elected deputy leader is of a different gender to the first.^[6] There is also an option to reopen nominations on the ballot.^[1]

The spending limit for candidates was £500.^[1]

Timetable

2025 GPEW leadership election timetable^[7][3]

Date(s)	Relevant deadline/period
3 May	Notice of election published[8]
2 June	Nominations opened (10 am BST)
30 June	Nominations closed (12 noon)
2 July	Statement of Persons Nominated published
3 July	Campaign period began
1 August	Ballots opened
30 August	Ballots closed (12 noon)
1 September	Deadline for postal ballots
2 September	Results announced

Candidates

The candidate list, published 2 July, included the following 9 candidates:^[9]

Candidate	Slogan	Political office	Date announced	Campaign website	Source(s)
Frank Adlington-Stringer	Open. Honest. Direct.	Councillor for Wingerworth ward, North East Derbyshire	30 June 2025	rankfrank1st.green	[10]
Mothin Ali	For Deputy, For You	Councillor for Gipton and Harehills, Leeds	4 June 2025	www.mothinali.com	[11][12]
Thomas Daw	Building a Better Green Party	Councillor for Wrington, North Somerset	7 May 2025	www.thomasdaw4deputy.com	[13]
Antoinette Fernandez	Antoinette for All	Candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (2024) Candidate for 2024 London Assembly election, North East	6 May 2025	antoinette-fernandez	[5]
Alex Mace	Radical hope can win	Councillor for St Stephen ward, Worcester	29 June 2025		[14]
Rachel Millward	Hope can win	Deputy leader of Wealden District Council	10 June 2025	www.rach4deputy.com	[15][16]
Ash Routh		Standing order committee member Candidate for Wakefield and Rothwell (2024)	N/A	ashrouth.com
Ani Townsend		Councillor for Central ward, Bristol Candidate for Bristol East (2024)	9 June 2025	anitownsend.com	[17]
Chas Warlow		Councillor for South Richmond, Richmond upon Thames	27 June 2025		[18]

Hustings and debates

The debates that took place for the leadership were as follows:

Date	Title	Host	Participants									Link	Wider coverage/ source(s)
			Adlington-Stringer	Ali	Daw	Fernandez	Mace	Millward	Routh	Townsend	Warlow
24 July	Green Party Deputy Leadership Hustings 2025	Greens Organise	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present	Absent	Present	Present	YouTube

Results

With Polanski elected as a single leader, two deputy leaders were to be elected. Mothin Ali was elected first after 7 rounds of vote transfers from other candidates; a second count was then calculated with all male candidates removed to ensure the second deputy leader being of a different gender to the first, in which Rachel Millward was elected. 16,013 ballots were cast.^[19]

First deputy leader position^[19]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Green	Mothin Ali	33.51%	5,366	5,379	5,402	5,575	5,865	6,344	7,151
	Green	Rachel Millward	22.83%	3,656	3,676	3,701	3,820	4,138	4,654	5,988
	Green	Frank Adlington-Stringer	16.03%	2,567	2,579	2,610	2,792	3,148	3,380
	Green	Antoinette Fernandez	9.09%	1,455	1,469	1,502	1,622	1,875
	Green	Ani Townsend	8.46%	1,355	1,364	1,390	1,620
	Green	Alex Mace	3.43%	549	556	571
	Green	Ashley Routh	3.28%	526	533	543
	Green	Thomas Daw	1.52%	243	250
	Green	Chas Warlow	1.00%	160
		Re-open nominations	0.86%	136	143	143	159	199	233	356
		Exhausted votes		0	64	151	425	788	1,402	2,518
Electorate: 64,581   Valid: 16,013   Quota: 8,006.5   Turnout: 16,013

Second deputy leader position^[19]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	Green	Rachel Millward	22.83%	3,656	5,842	6,022
	Green	Antoinette Fernandez	9.09%	1,455	2,765	2,983
	Green	Ani Townsend	8.46%	1,355	2,236	2,576
	Green	Ashley Routh	3.28%	526	1,008
	Green	Mothin Ali	33.51%	5,366
	Green	Frank Adlington-Stringer	16.03%	2,567
	Green	Alex Mace	3.43%	549
	Green	Thomas Daw	1.52%	243
	Green	Chas Warlow	1.00%	160
		Re-open nominations	0.86%	136	419	450
		Exhausted votes		0	3,743	3,982
Electorate: 64,581   Valid: 16,013   Quota: 8,006.5   Turnout: 16,013

See also

• 2025 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election
• 2025 Scottish Greens co-leadership election