Jonathan Bartley

Jonathan Bartley
Bartley in 2018
Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
In office 2 September 2016 – 30 July 2021 Serving with Caroline Lucas(2016–2018) Siân Berry(2018–2021)
Deputy	Amelia Womack
Preceded by	Natalie Bennett
Succeeded by	Carla DenyerandAdrian Ramsay
Member ofLambeth London Borough CouncilforSt 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 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 Lucasfrom 2016 to 2018, and then, from 2018 to 2021, withSiân Berry.He was the Green Party's national Work and Pensions spokespersonand the party's Parliamentary candidate forStreathamin the2015 general election.He was theUnite to Remaincandidate forDulwich and West Norwoodat the2019 general election.

Bartley was a councillor onLambeth Councilrepresenting the St Leonard's ward between 2018 and 2022.

Bartley is the founder and was (until 2016)co-director ofEkklesia,an independentthink tanklooking at the role of religion in public life and appears regularly on UK radio and television programmes. He is a member of theblues rockbandThe Mustangs.

Early life

Bartley was born in London on 16 October 1971. His father was Christopher Bartley, an NHS consultant physician, andNormandyveteran.Bartley's uncle wasAnthony Bartley,aWorld War IISpitfire pilot and squadron leader who married the actressDeborah Kerr.Bartley is a direct descendant of the prison reformerElizabeth Fry.

From 1980 to 1989,Bartley was educated atDulwich College,a boardingindependent schoolfor boys, inDulwichin 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.After leaving school, Bartley attended theLondon School of Economics,from which he graduated with a degree in social policy.

Politics

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 electionagainstJohn 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."

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".In 2008, he co-founded theAccord Coalition,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 DayandITV'sThe Moral of the Story,and has been a columnist forThe Church Times.He has been a guest on BBC Radio 4'sThe Moral Mazeand has written forThe Guardiannewspaper.

David Cameron incident

On 27 April 2010, while Bartley was waiting to attend a hospital appointment at theEvelina Children's Hospitalwith his son Samuel, a Conservative Party official asked if he would like to meet the-thenLeader of the Conservative Party,David Cameron.Bartley agreed and party officials then brought the Conservative leader over to meet them, on his way to a car after aGeneral Electioncampaign 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".Referring to his own two-year attempt to gain a place for his son in a mainstream school,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".After the event Channel 4 FactCheck said that Cameron had been wrong.

The Daily Telegraphpointed out that Bartley had been onThe Moral Mazeand was a regular commentator in the media.Bartley said he was a "floating voter", that he felt let down by the main parties and criticised the Labour government over the issues of inclusion.

Afterwards, Bartley became the chair of the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE).

AV referendum

As part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement following the 2010 general election, the two parties agreed to an AV 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 Votescampaign, acting principally as a media spokesperson throughout the referendum.

After the campaign, he joined the council of theElectoral Reform Society,serving as vice-chair.

Green Party

In 2012, Bartley was selected as theGreen Partycandidate for theLambeth and Southwarkconstituency 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'sWard on Lambeth 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.Bartley was the Green Party candidate for the London constituency ofStreathamin the election, finishing fourth and receiving 4,421 votes (8.9%), up from the 1.8% the party received in 2010.

Bartley sought to be the party's candidate in the2016 London mayoral election,but was defeated bySiân Berry.He was instead named in fourth place on the party's list of candidates for theconcurrent London Assembly electionsand played an active role in the campaign.

On 31 May 2016, it was announced that Bartley would run for the position of the leader of the Green Party in a job share arrangement with the former leaderCaroline Lucasin the forthcoming2016 Green Party leadership election.He and Lucas subsequently became co-leaders on 2 September 2016. Bartley did not stand for election at the2017 general election.

Bartley was also the Work and Pensions spokesperson for the Green Party from 2016 to 2017.

On 3 May 2018, Bartley was elected as a Green Party councillor for St Leonard's Ward onLambeth Council.He finished as the second place 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.Bartley stood for election as co-leader withSiân Berryand the two were successful.

On 16 October 2019, his 48th birthday, Bartley was arrested by police while demonstrating withExtinction RebellioninTrafalgar Square.

Bartley again stood for Parliament in the2019 General Electionin the constituency ofDulwich and West Norwood,finishing second with 16.5% of the vote.This represented a 14% increase in the party's vote share, the largest for any Green candidate in the country at that election.

On 8 June 2020, Bartley announced his intention to stand again as co-leader alongside Berry.On 9 September, it was reported that Bartley and Berry had beenre-elected,but with a decreased vote share.

Bartley was reported to have said that he personally supports the banning ofhalalslaughter.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.

In May 2021, Bartley was a signatory to an open letter fromStylistmagazine,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".

In July 2021, Bartley announced that he would be standing down as party co-leader later in the month, triggering aleadership contest.

Music

Bartley is the drummer for British blues rock bandThe Mustangs.The band is signed to the Trapeze music label and has released ten albums, including a live album and a 'Best Of'. In June 2017 The Mustangs played the Glastonbury Festival.

Family

Bartley has three children with his wife, Lucy. Bartley confirmed in May 2017 that he and Lucy had separated.

Books

• The Subversive Manifesto: lifting the lid on God's political agenda(Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004).
• Your Child and the Internet(Hodder, 2004).
• (Co-editor, with Simon Barrow)Consuming Passion: Why The Killing of Jesus Really Matters(DLT, 2005)
• Faith and Politics After Christendom: the church as a movement for anarchy(Paternoster, 2006).

External links

• Jonathan Bartley on Facebook
• Jonathan Bartley Column (Ekklesia)
• Jonathan Bartley columns at guardian.co.uk