Siân Berry

Siân Berry - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Siân Berry

Siân Rebecca Berry (born 9 July 1974) is a British politician who has served as the member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion since July 2024, succeeding Caroline Lucas. She was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and was its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's principal speakers.

This profile of Siân Berry covers Early Life and Family Background, Green Party politician, Camden Council, London Assembly and House of Commons.

Berry was a member of the London Assembly (AM) from 2016 until she resigned in 2024, serving as a London-wide member elected under the Additional-member system. She also served as a Green Party councillor on Camden Council, representing Highgate until October 2023.

Early Life and Family Background of Siân Berry

Berry was born on 9 July 1974, and brought up in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. She was educated at Pate's Grammar School, a state grammar school in Cheltenham, where her parents were teachers. She studied metallurgy and the science of materials at Trinity College, Oxford, graduating with a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree. Upon graduating in 1997, she moved to London.

Berry worked as a medical copywriter. From June 2011 to late 2015, Berry worked as a roads and sustainable transport campaigner for the charity Campaign for Better Transport.

Green Party politician of Siân Berry

In her first major party political role as the party's campaigns co-ordinator, Berry led the Green Energy Works campaign, calling for low carbon, non-nuclear energy to tackle climate change. She also led a campaign against the renewal of Britain's nuclear weapon, the Trident submarine, travelling to the nuclear submarine base in Faslane, Scotland, to protest.

Berry failed to be elected to Camden London Borough Council three times: once during 2002 and twice in 2006. In the 2002 local elections, she came fifth in the Highgate ward with 811 votes, 38 votes behind the third place required to gain a seat. The 2006 local elections saw her contest the neighbouring Kentish Town ward, in which she gained 1,057 votes and came sixth out of 12. A 7 December 2006 by-election in Kentish Town ward saw her come second out of four with 812 votes, behind the Liberal Democrat winner on 1,093 votes.

In 2005, Berry was the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency (which included Highgate ward) at that year's general election. She received 5.3% of the vote, coming fourth; the seat was held by Labour's Glenda Jackson.

Berry was elected as the Green Party's female Principal Speaker unopposed in autumn 2006, succeeding Caroline Lucas MEP and, working alongside male Principal Speaker Derek Wall, served until autumn 2007, when Lucas resumed the post following an election. She wrote a regular blog for the New Statesman magazine from November 2006 to July 2008.

On 12 March 2007, the Green Party announced that Berry would be the party's candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election, after she received 45% of the votes in the London Green Party's internal election. Berry recommended that her voters back Labour Party candidate Ken Livingstone as their second preference and Livingstone advocated an equivalent preference for his supporters. Berry was endorsed by The Independent and The Observer newspapers, with Ken Livingstone as second preference. Berry came fourth, with 3.15% of first preferences and 13.50% of second preferences.

Camden Council

In the 2014 local elections, Berry was elected to the Highgate ward of Camden London Borough Council, holding the seat of outgoing Green councillor Maya De Souza in a split result for the ward.

Berry has supported local services in Camden threatened by redevelopment projects. She has advocated "green development" in Kings Cross Railwaylands (the largest brownfield site in the UK) to provide more family-housing.

London Assembly

On 2 September, it was announced that she had won the internal party election to stand as the Greens' London mayoral candidate and first place list candidate for the London Assembly elections in 2016. She was one of the few candidates in the race to rent rather than own her home and made private renters' rights a centrepiece of her campaign. She was described by The Guardian's London specialist Dave Hill as having "like her party, grown more formidable with experience".

Berry came third in the first preference voting round for the mayoralty, and thus did not make it to the second round. But she was elected to the London Assembly as one of two Green members.

At the 2017 general election, Berry stood as the Green candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, which includes her Highgate ward. She finished fourth, and the party lost its deposit in the seat, which was retained for Labour by Sir Keir Starmer.

At the May 2021 London Assembly elections, delayed by a year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Berry was re-elected. The same month, alongside celebrities and other public figures, Berry was a signatory to an open letter from Stylist magazine which called on the government to address what it described as an "epidemic of male violence" by funding an "ongoing, high-profile, expert-informed awareness campaign on men's violence against women and girls".

On 14 July 2021, Berry announced she would stand down as the Green Party's co-leader, citing an internal party conflict over transgender rights and stating that "there is now an inconsistency between the sincere promise to fight for trans rights and inclusion in my work and the message sent by the party's choice of frontbench representatives."

In August 2023, she announced her candidacy for the 2024 London Assembly election, to be held in May 2024. Berry won a seat, but resigned three days later to hand it to Zoë Garbett, who had come fourth in the 2024 London mayoral election, for which she was criticised.

House of Commons

On 13 June 2023, Berry announced her intention to stand to be the Green Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion constituency, which was being vacated by incumbent Green MP Caroline Lucas. On 19 July 2023, she was confirmed as the Green candidate, having secured 71% of first preference votes.

On her selection she said that "Labour's lurch to the right would help the Greens hold the seat". This raised questions about whether she would continue as a councillor, after saying "I will work every moment between now and the general election" in Brighton Pavilion. On 20 October 2023, Berry stood down as a councillor in Camden to focus on her general election campaign in Brighton Pavilion.

In the 2024 general election, Berry was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion with 28,809 votes (54.8%) and a majority of 14,290 over the second-placed Labour candidate. The Greens would win a further three seats for their best-ever election result: Ellie Chowns and Green co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay joined Berry as first-time MPs, making them amongst the party's first five MPs ever alongside the retiring Lucas. She made her maiden speech on 17 July 2024 during the debate following the King's Speech.

Berry is a co-sponsor of Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on assisted suicide.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C3%A2n_Berry), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.