As co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and a key player in UK politics, Carla Denyer has been fast gaining approval amongst younger voters for her environmentally friendly policies, desire for social justice, and stance as a proud ally for LGBTQIA+ and trans rights.
And after ballots were cast yesterday (4 June), the results say that her hard work has paid off. The Green Party gained Bristol Central, with Carla winning the seat from Labour's Thangham Debbonaire by a majority of 10,000.
It proved to be the Green Party's most successful election night ever. Before, the climate-conscious party had only even won in the East Sussex constituency of Brighton Pavilion. Now, the British public votes have seen them win four seats (Waveney Valley, Bristol Central, North Herefordshire, and Brighton Pavilion.)
Here, we take a closer look at who Carla Denyer is and what she’s campaigning for.
Who is Carla Denyer?
Carla Suzanne Denyer is a politician and co-leader of the Green Party alongside Adrian Ramsay, since they were elected in October 2021. Named the most popular candidate for the Green Party in 2019, the 38-year-old passionate environmentalist and activist – who’s hoping to win the Bristol Central seat in the general election – has aspired to create change from a young age. A vegan, she started campaigning in sixth form, promoting fair trade and protesting the Iraq War, then began her environmental activism at Durham University after she had an ‘epiphany’.
‘I came back to my third year with a conviction that, ‘OK, I need to dedicate the rest of my life to trying to stop climate change. That’s a given,’ she said.
The 2024 General Election saw Carla become MP of Bristol Central, saying the city had 'made history.' She told BBC News, 'I'm feeling over the moon and so grateful for all of the support we received from voters in Bristol Central and across the country. We know our voters like our policies. Policies like increased minimum wage and better investment in public services.'
'We went into this election with an ambitious but realistic target to quadruple our number of MPs. The voters have spoken, and I think this is the direction of travel for Greens from now on.'
Is Carla Denyer married?
Carla Denyer is not thought to be married. She identifies as bisexual or pansexual, meaning she's not limited in her attraction by gender identity or biological sex.
'I never really hid my sexuality, so I didn’t have a single coming out moment, but lots of tiny coming out moments with individuals or groups of friends when it became relevant to tell them,' she told Bristol Post. 'Sometimes it was met with confusion, but thankfully never hostility.'
What are Carla Denyer's eco credentials?
Before entering the political sphere, Carla - who served as a city Councillor in Bristol from 2015 until she stepped down earlier this year to focus on her MP dreams - worked as an engineer in renewable energy, designing wind farms.
She joined the Green Party in 2011. ‘I said yes [to running for office] not because I wanted power myself, but because I realised that might be a more effective way of achieving the change I wanted to see in the world,’ she said. ‘Climate change is going to affect every aspect of our economy and our society and our wellbeing.’
She wrote and proposed the first Climate Emergency declaration in Europe in 2018, boldly setting the goal for Bristol to become carbon neutral by 2030. This has since been adopted by 570 UK councils, Parliament and the Scottish and Welsh governments. Impressive, indeed.
What is she campaigning for?
The Green Party’s key pledges are protecting the environment and fighting climate change, accelerating the rollout of renewable energy, strengthening Green Belt restrictions and offering UK ecosystems legal rights and protections, building 150,000 new council homes, as well as ending the Right to Buy scheme and no-fault evictions. They want to end privatisation in the NHS, and are also campaigning for a greener public transport system.
But above all, the party's main goal was get a second MP elected to the House of Commons. The general election saw them smash this target out of the park, with the Greens winning four seats. ‘The decision for voters is, do you want a 100 percent Labour government where Keir Starmer can do whatever he wants and keep U-turning on all those policies? Or do they want a Labour government with a handful of Green MPs there to keep them honest, and to pull them in the right direction on the areas where they’re not so hot?’
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