News / Politics
Ani Townsend runs for Green Party deputy leader
One of Bristol’s most senior councillors has thrown their hat into the ring to become the deputy leader of the national Green Party.
Ani Townsend is a theatrical milliner by trade who was first elected as a Bristol councillor in 2015, originally for Cabot and later for the renamed Central ward.
Townsend said their campaign for deputy leader “is rooted in delivering unapologetic, justice-driven leadership that centres racial, economic and environmental justice”.
Townsend, formerly known as Ani Stafford-Townsend, said: “We’re at a crossroads. The climate emergency is almost at the point of no return. The social emergency, the rise of the far right and fascism. It’s here, in our communities.
“The Green Party hasn’t become successful by chasing the policies of the ruling powers; we have gotten here by holding true to our values. This is when it really counts. Right now.
“The Green Party must be the party that upholds these values. We are the only ones that will.”
Townsend said that intersectional feminism and the trade union movement first led them to get involved in party politics “as a result of Conservative/Lib Dem coalition austerity, and I joined the Green Party to create change”.
Townsend was the Green Party candidate for Bristol East in the 2024 general election and has previously been leader of the Green group at City Hall as well as being a committee chair.
They said that since being elected as a councillor, they have “fought Bristol’s political establishment old and new, not for the sake of conflict, but because our communities deserve better than silence and compromise”.
Ani Townsend is councillor for Bristol Central alongside rising star Sibusiso Tshabalala – photo: Green Party
Townsend, who is supporting Zack Polanski for leader of the Greens in the upcoming internal leadership and deputy leadership elections, added: “The time for polite status quo politics has passed.
“The Green Party is crying out for courage, for real action in the face of climate collapse and deepening inequality.
“We cannot tinker at the edges while the establishment watches the system burn.
“I believe in a radical Green leadership: bold, unapologetic and rooted in racial, economic and social justice.
“That’s why I’m standing. For a Green movement that dares to lead.”
Main photo: Rob Browne
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