Mothin Ali
British politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mothin Ali (/ˈmɔːtiːn/ /ɑːˈliː/; born 1981/82)[1] is a British politician who has served as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, alongside Rachel Millward, since September 2025. He has also served as a member of Leeds City Council for Gipton and Harehills since 2024.
January 1982 (age 44)
Mothin Ali | |
|---|---|
Ali in 2024 | |
| Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales | |
| Assumed office 2 September 2025 | |
| Leader | Zack Polanski |
| Preceded by | Zack Polanski |
| Leeds City Councillor for Gipton and Harehills | |
| Assumed office 3 May 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Arif Hussain |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mothin Mohammed Ali January 1982 (age 44) Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England |
| Party | Green (since 2020) |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (2000–2020) |
| Education | Leeds Beckett University (BSc) |
| Occupation |
|
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2017–present |
| Subscribers | 56,000 |
| Views | 4.5 million |
| Last updated: 1 December 2025 | |
Early life
Politics
Ali joined the Labour Party at the age of eighteen, but left and joined the Green Party in 2020, following the beginning of Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party.[4] He began campaigning for election as the Green Party candidate for the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council in 2022;[3] this was one of the UK's poorest areas, 40% of whose population was Muslim, with over 65% coming from minority ethnic groups.[5]
Ali was elected in the 2024 Leeds City Council election.[6][7] This result was interpreted by Ali and some other commentators as a sign of local voters' dissatisfaction with the Labour Party's stance on the Israeli invasion of Gaza.[4][3][8][9] Ali described his local election victory a win for the people of Gaza amidst the Israeli invasion: "We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine." Following this, he shouted the Takbir, which means "God is the greatest" in Arabic.[10][11][12] He was investigated for the comments made in his victory speech.[12] He added that he hoped to work jointly with Jewish Greens and Muslim Greens to discuss how to promote an end to the Gaza War.[12] As a member of the Greens For Palestine group, Ali supported a change to Green Party policy to label the Israeli government's conduct in the Gaza war as apartheid and genocide and to support the associated boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Ali made a prominent speech promoting this policy at the Green Party's annual conference in September 2024, and the party accepted the proposed policy change.[13][14][15]
Ali is an anti-racism campaigner. He started the DigItOut campaign, which aims to end racism in horticulture.[16][2][17] This was a response to his own experiences of racism in the gardening world, including abuse he received on his YouTube channel, which worsened after the publication in 2021 of the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.[18] He is a long-standing critic of the UK government's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, arguing that it embeds Islamophobia.[19][20] In the wake of the 2024 United Kingdom riots, Ali criticised the racism of their perpetrators while also criticising what he saw as growing media and government encouragement of racist attitudes, and particularly Islamophobia, in the UK.[20] As of 2024, he was campaigning to make Leeds what he called a "city of belonging", modelled on the concept of a City of Sanctuary.[5][4]
Shortly after his election, Ali sought to overturn a Leeds City Council policy to close a number of council-run nurseries;[21] the following year saw him campaigning for improved consultation regarding changes to road layouts in his ward.[22]
For the 2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election, Ali was also nominated by his party to be the Green Party's pick to be deputy Mayor of West Yorkshire in the event that the Green Party won. However, the Greens came third.[23] In June 2025, Ali announced he was standing to be deputy leader of the Green Party in the upcoming election; he was elected in September that year.[24]
Gaza
After the October 7 attacks, Ali had said that people should "support the right of indigenous people to fight back" and said that "they are not victims, they are occupiers, they are colonialists, they are European colonialists". The Green Party stated that it would investigate Ali's comments.[12] Ali was condemned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.[12] Ali apologised for any upset his comments caused and said that he does not support violence on either side, saying it would only lead to further violence.[12] He added that he hoped to work with both the Jewish and Muslim Greens to discuss how to promote an end to the Gaza War.[12] In later interviews, he noted that he had experienced extensive harassment following media coverage of the incident,[25] including the puncturing of his car tyres,[5] and 5Pillars reported that he had required police protection.[15]
Harehills riot
During the 2024 Harehills riot, Ali formed what some press reports called "a human shield" to stop violence escalating and appealed for calm.[26][27][28] Ali was erroneously accused of taking part in the unrest by some far-right political commentators,[25][29] and as of September 2024 was raising money to take legal action against his alleged libellors.[15] The Muslim Council of Britain commended Ali for his "bravery and service" during the unrest.[29] Following the unrest, Ali organised community meetings, particularly developing his contacts with the local Roma community.[30]
Electoral performance
May 2024
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | Mothin Ali | 3,070 | 51.6 | +20.4 | |
| Labour | Arif Hussain* | 2,323 | 39.0 | −16.9 | |
| Conservative | Liam Roberts | 285 | 4.8 | −2.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Thomas Race | 156 | 2.6 | −0.7 | |
| TUSC | Iain Dalton | 120 | 2.0 | −0.5 | |
| Majority | 747 | 12.6 | −12.0 | ||
| Turnout | 5,954 | 33.1 | +6.6 | ||
| Green gain from Labour | Swing | +18.7 | |||
May 2023
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Asghar Ali | 2,655 | 55.9 | −4.6 | |
| Green | Mothin Ali | 1,484 | 31.2 | +8.9 | |
| Conservative | Robert Harris | 310 | 6.9 | −3.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Mark Twitchett | 156 | 3.3 | −1.3 | |
| TUSC | Iain Dalton | 121 | 2.5 | +0.7 | |
| Majority | 1,171 | 24.6 | −13.7 | ||
| Turnout | 4,751 | 26.5 | +1.2 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
May 2022
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Salma Arif* | 2,722 | 60.5 | −12.9 | |
| Green | Mothin Ali | 1,001 | 22.3 | +16.2 | |
| Conservative | Robert Harris | 454 | 10.1 | −1.6 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Aqila Choudhry | 206 | 4.6 | +0.5 | |
| TUSC | Tanis Belsham-Wray | 82 | 1.8 | −0.8 | |
| Majority | 1,721 | 38.3 | −23.3 | ||
| Turnout | 4,498 | 25.3 | −4.6 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Personal life
Ali is a Muslim.[31] As of 2022, he works as an accountant during the day and teaches Islamic studies in the evenings.[32]
Horticulture
Ali has a YouTube channel, "My Family Garden", which in 2022 had 35,000 subscribers and 50,000 in 2024, where he documents his gardening.[32][3] In 2022, he was featured on the BBC programmes Marcus Wareing's Tales from a Kitchen Garden[33] and Blossom Trees and Burnt Out Cars;[17] in the same year he began craft production of achar made from home-grown ingredients.[32]