Jonathan Bartley | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bartley in 2018 | |
| Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales | |
| In office 2 September 2016 – 30 July 2021 Serving with
| |
| Deputy | Amelia Womack |
| Preceded by | Natalie Bennett |
| Succeeded by | Carla Denyer andAdrian Ramsay |
| Member ofLambeth London Borough Council forSt Leonard's | |
| In office 3 May 2018 – 5 May 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Rob Hill (Labour) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jonathan Charles Bartley (1971-10-16)16 October 1971 (age 54) London, England |
| Political party | Green Party of England and Wales (2010–present) |
| Education | Dulwich College |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics |
| Occupation | Political activist |
Jonathan Charles Bartley (born 16 October 1971) is a British politician who was aco-leader of theGreen Party of England and Wales, a position he shared withCaroline Lucas from 2016 to 2018, and then, from 2018 to 2021, withSiân Berry. He was the Green Party's national Work and Pensions spokesperson[1] and the party's Parliamentary candidate forStreatham in the2015 general election.[2] He was theUnite to Remain candidate forDulwich and West Norwood at the2019 general election.
Bartley was leader of the opposition and a councillor onLambeth Council representing the St Leonard's ward inStreatham between 2018 and 2022.
Bartley is the founder and was (until 2016)[3] co-director ofEkklesia,[4] an independentthink tank looking at the role of religion in public life and appears regularly on UK radio and television programmes. He is a member of theblues rock bandThe Mustangs.
Bartley was born in London on 16 October 1971. His father was Christopher Bartley, anNHS consultant physician, andNormandy veteran.[5] Bartley's uncle wasAnthony Bartley, aWorld War II Spitfire pilot and squadron leader who married the actressDeborah Kerr.[6] Bartley is a direct descendant of the prison reformerElizabeth Fry.[7]
From 1980 to 1989,[8] Bartley was educated atDulwich College,[9] a boardingindependent school for boys, inDulwich in south London. At the age of seventeen and while still at school, Bartley hit and killed a young student while driving a car, but the death was treated as accidental and the police did not press charges.[10] After leaving school, Bartley attended theLondon School of Economics, from which he graduated with a degree in social policy.[11]
After graduating from the LSE, Bartley worked at the UK Parliament on a cross-party basis as a researcher and parliamentary assistant for a number of years. He volunteered onJohn Major's campaign team in the 1995Conservative Partyleadership election againstJohn Redwood. He later said, "I was not an advisor, I was not a staffer and I am so far from the Conservatives you wouldn't believe."[12][13]
In 2002, Bartley co-foundedEkklesia, a Christian think-tank which looks at "the changing role of beliefs, values and faith/non-faith in public life".[14] In 2008, he co-founded theAccord Coalition,[15] which works to end religious discrimination and segregation in the English and Welsh school systems.
He is a regular contributor toBBC One'sThe Big Questions. He has formerly contributed toBBC Radio 4'sThought for the Day andITV'sThe Moral of the Story, and has been a columnist forThe Church Times. He has been a guest on BBC Radio 4'sThe Moral Maze and has written forThe Guardian newspaper.
On 27 April 2010, while Bartley was waiting to attend a hospital appointment at theEvelina Children's Hospital with his son Samuel, a Conservative Party official asked if he would like to meet the-thenLeader of the Conservative Party,David Cameron.[16][17] Bartley agreed, and party officials then brought the Conservative leader over to meet them, on his way to a car after ageneral election campaign event in south London.
Bartley asserted that Conservative manifesto plans would increase the segregation of disabled children, as it pledged to "end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools".[17] Referring to his own two-year attempt to gain a place for his son in a mainstream school,[18] Bartley also asked why the Conservative manifesto did not say that the Conservatives wanted to encourage children into mainstream schools. Cameron said, "It absolutely does say that sir, I promise you".[19] After the event,Channel 4 FactCheck said that Cameron had been wrong.[19]
The Daily Telegraph pointed out that Bartley had been onThe Moral Maze and was a regular commentator in the media.[20] Bartley said he was a "floating voter", and that he felt let down by the main parties and criticised theLabour government over issues of inclusion.[21]
Afterwards, Bartley became the chair of the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE).[22]
As part of theConservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement following the 2010 general election, the two parties agreed to anAV referendum on changing the method of electing MPs in subsequent general elections. A long-time supporter of electoral reform, Bartley was appointed a vice-chair of the official cross-partyYES! To Fairer Votes campaign, acting principally as a media spokesperson throughout the referendum.[23]
After the campaign, he joined the council of theElectoral Reform Society, serving as vice-chair.[24]
In 2012, Bartley was selected as theGreen Party candidate for theLambeth and Southwark constituency for theLondon Assembly elections, winning over 18,000 votes. Bartley also acted as the party's press officer for the London campaign.
In 2014, Bartley contested theSt Leonard's ward onLambeth Council as a Green candidate. He finished in fifth place.
Bartley has represented the Green Party in the media, including the BBC's welfare debate at the2015 general election, clashing with then-Work and Pensions SecretaryIain Duncan Smith.[25] Bartley was the Green Party candidate for the London constituency ofStreatham in the election, finishing fourth and receiving 4,421 votes (8.9%), an increase from the 1.8% the party received in 2010.[26]
Bartley sought to be the party's candidate in the2016 London mayoral election,[27] but was defeated bySiân Berry.[28] He was instead named in fourth place on the party's list of candidates for theconcurrent London Assembly elections, and played an active role in the campaign.
On 31 May 2016, it was announced that Bartley would run for the position of theleader of the Green Party in a job share arrangement with the former leaderCaroline Lucas in the forthcoming2016 Green Party leadership election.[29] He and Lucas subsequently became co-leaders on 2 September 2016. Bartley did not stand at the2017 general election.[30]
Bartley was also the Work and Pensions spokesperson for the Green Party from 2016 to 2017.[31]
On 3 May 2018, Bartley was elected as a Green Party councillor for St Leonard's ward onLambeth Council. He finished as the second placed Green candidate. Later that month he became leader of the Green group and opposition on the Council.
On 30 May 2018, Caroline Lucas announced she would not seek re-election as co-leader of the Green Party in the party's forthcoming leadership election.[32] Bartley stood for election as co-leader with Siân Berry, and the two were successful.[33]
On 16 October 2019, his 48th birthday, Bartley was arrested by police while demonstrating withExtinction Rebellion inTrafalgar Square.[34][35]
Bartley again stood for Parliament at the2019 general election in the constituency ofDulwich and West Norwood, finishing second with 16.5% of the vote.[36] This represented a 14% increase in the party's vote share, the largest for any Green candidate in the country at that election.[37]
On 8 June 2020, Bartley announced his intention to stand again as co-leader alongside Berry.[38] On 9 September, it was reported that Bartley and Berry had beenre-elected, but with a decreased vote share.[39]
Bartley was reported to have said that he personally supports the banning ofhalal slaughter.[40] He later apologised, and clarified his position, saying he is against the suffering inflicted during slaughter on any un-stunned animals, and recognising that the majority of halal slaughter involves pre-stunning animals.[41]
In May 2021, Bartley was a signatory to an open letter fromStylist magazine, alongside celebrities and other public figures, 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".[42]
In July 2021, Bartley announced that he would be standing down as party co-leader later in the month, triggering aleadership contest.[43]
Bartley is the drummer for the British blues rock bandThe Mustangs. The band are signed to the Trapeze music label, and have released ten albums, including a live album and aBest Of. In June 2017, they played at theGlastonbury Festival.
Bartley has three children with his wife, Lucy. Bartley confirmed in May 2017 that he and Lucy had separated.[44]
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales 2016–2021 With:Caroline Lucas (2016–2018) Siân Berry (2018–2021) | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
