The Green Party are delighted to announce that Scott Ainslie has been selected as our General Election candidate for the new seat of Streatham and Croydon North. Recent polling by the Daily Mirror showed the Green Party in second place to Labour in this constituency.
Scott said:
“It is a great honour to be selected as the candidate for Streatham and Croydon North where I live and have brought up my children.
I have been a Lambeth councillor since 2014, being re-elected twice in 2018 and in 2022, where the Green Party secured 22% of the vote across the borough. For the past two years I have been co-leader of the Lambeth Green Group of councillors.
As a councillor over the past ten years, I have fought tooth and nail for local residents, often putting myself between those who need protecting and the authorities. For example, I occupied vulnerable people’s homes to prevent bailiffs evicting residents; I have led from the front in organising campaigns to stop demolition of council estates; I was one of the founders of Hands Off Our Common, which prevented a private takeover of public land. I have been a constant ally of the survivors of child abuse in Lambeth’s Children’s Homes. I have also successfully worked cross-party to pass the landmark motion on colonial enslavement. This led to The Green Party being the first British political party to commit to reparatory justice and helped lead to the establishment of the first ever all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan Reparations.
In May 2019, I was overjoyed to be elected as London's Green Member of the European Parliament, where I was able to stand up vociferously for social and environmental justice at an international level and defend democracy and persecuted peoples across the world. (Full details: https://scottainslie.green/index_old.html)
All the other parties have had their chances and failed to end child poverty, to insulate people’s homes so they do not have to choose between heating and eating, to protect and invest in our public services, to protect our food crops and planet. It’s time they moved over and gave the Green Party a chance. We understand, at our core, that economic, racial, social, gender and climate justice are intersectional and structurally entangled, and that there must be equity and justice for all.
My mum brought up my sister and me in a council tower block. The lived experience of this has never left us. It is this humblest of starts in life that drives my quest for social, environmental, racial, and economic justice and what makes me a formidable advocate for all.”
About Scott
Scott has lived in Streatham for over twenty-seven years and he was one of the founding members of Sustainable Streatham, Hands Off Our Common and whist serving on the Streatham Action committee, he helped establish the Streatham Action Transport Group.
Originally from Edinburgh, where he stayed until he completed his degree in Business Studies at Edinburgh Napier University, Scott came to London to pursue his passion for acting. He won a scholarship to study drama at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and became a professional actor in 1994.
He has two grown up daughters, and his concern for their future has helped to fuel his fight to take serious action on climate and ecological breakdown.
