Mothin Ali

Mothin Mohammed Ali ( ; born 12 January 1982) 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.

Political career 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. He began campaigning for election as the Green Party candidate for the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council in 2022;

Ali is an anti-racism campaigner. He started the DigItOut campaign, which aims to end racism in horticulture. 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. He is a long-standing critic of the UK government's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, arguing that it embeds Islamophobia. 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. 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.

Leeds City Council Ali was elected in the 2024 Leeds City Council election. 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 Gaza war. 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. He was investigated for the comments made in his victory speech.

Shortly after his election, Ali sought to overturn a Leeds City Council policy to close a number of council-run nurseries; the following year saw him campaigning for improved consultation regarding changes to road layouts in his ward.

A Private Eye investigation revealed that Ali received a council Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) without any additional responsibilities attached. Other Leeds Green Councillors called on Ali and Group Leader Penny Stables to have the party whip suspended.

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. Ali was erroneously accused of taking part in the unrest by some far-right political commentators, Following the unrest, Ali organised community meetings, particularly developing his contacts with the local Roma community.

Electoral performance May 2024

May 2023

May 2022

Personal life Ali is a Muslim. As of 2022, he works as an accountant during the day and teaches Islamic studies in the evenings. in Sheffield, South Yorkshire;

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. and Blossom Trees and Burnt Out Cars; in the same year he began craft production of achar made from home-grown ingredients.