Mothin Ali’s speech to Green Party conference

Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali's full speech from Autumn conference at the Brighton Centre.  

What a phenomenal year it's been. 

Over 400 new councillors elected in May. 

Taking us to 1,300 across the country. 

Two elected mayors. 

Two members of the Senedd. 

And not to mention a fifth Green MP.

When I stood here in front of you last year, did I really think we could achieve so much? 

I absolutely did. 

I know our membership. 

I know how dedicated you all are. 

I know how much you care about your communities. 

And I know how much you want to build a better country. 

Together, we can.

Over the last year I have had the privilege of meeting so many of you. 

Visiting you, speaking with you, campaigning with you and eating with you! 

I got to eat fish and chips overlooking the sea in South Shields with Councillor Rachel Taylor and my absolute favourite field organiser, Elaine Francis. 

I got picked up like a baby by a giant of a man in Plymouth. 

Someone somewhere has that picture. 

Please send it to me! 

And then there was Exeter. 

Is Exeter in the house?

Picture this. 

I'm getting out of the car, hearing what sounds like a football crowd.

I turn to Jason and ask: 

Is there a football stadium nearby? 

No. 

It was more than 200 Green members, out in a park, ready for an action day. 

What a sight. 

What a welcome. 

Something I will never forget.

And that's what our movement looks like. 

We have grown enormously.

Our membership has skyrocketed. 

Our Young Greens are now the biggest youth political movement in the country. 

People are making the journey to the Green Party because they can see we offer a real alternative.

But with great growth comes great responsibility.

People are looking to us because they want a different kind of politics. 

And if we want to become a movement capable of governing this country. 

Then we have to understand the country we are asking to govern. 

The fact is, Britain today is a multiracial, multicultural democracy. 

That's who we are. 

Britain is becoming more diverse, not less. 

So the question isn't whether we can somehow turn the clock back. 

The question is whether we can build a country confident enough to live with difference. 

To protect everyone's equal right to belong. 

And make diversity work for us all.

And at a time when Britain is facing unprecedented levels of racist violence and intimidation

The country needs leadership. 

So I'm calling on Andy Burnham to recognise this as a national emergency. 

Because this is not just a policing problem. 

It's a test of whether a diverse democracy can protect the equal right of everybody to belong. 

And a message to Suella, I'm Brown, I'm Muslim, 

But I'm as English as a Yorkshire cup of tea!

And that takes us to the deeper crises we face.

In our democracy. 

A collapse of trust in our political institutions. 

A crisis of empathy.

Too often disagreement becomes hostility. 

Difference becomes suspicion. 

Fear becomes a political weapon. 

Live and let live. 

I have always lived by that simple idea.

At least it sounds simple. 

But in a diverse democracy it's profound. 

You don't have to become your neighbour. 

You don't have to worship like them. 

You don't have to vote like them. 

You don't even have to agree with them. 

But you do have to recognise their equal right to exist and to belong.

Live and let live doesn't mean retreating into separate corners. 

Britain has to have a conversation with itself. 

We have to speak to people we disagree with. 

We have to listen seriously to genuine concerns about immigration, housing, public services and security. 

We must distinguish legitimate political argument,

from the denigration of whole communities. 

Whether you're a Black boy sitting in a park, a Jewish family going to synagogue, a Muslim praying in a mosque, or someone seeking safety from war and persecution,

there should be no street, 

no neighbourhood 

and no place in this country where you can't live your life in peace.

Belonging should never be conditional on race, religion, accent or background. 

So what do we do? 

When people feel powerless, give them meaningful power. 

When they feel unheard, create places where they genuinely have a voice. 

Democracy shouldn't be something that happens every few years when someone knocks on your door asking for your vote. 

It should become a civic duty. 

The answer to a crisis of democracy is not less democracy. 

It's deeper democracy. 

And that principle has to apply inside our own party too. 

We've grown enormously, 

and we've grown quickly. 

Of course that brings disagreement. 

People have come here from different political traditions, 

different communities,

and different experiences. 

That should be a strength. 

But only if we learn how to disagree. 

Difference is not betrayal. 

Disagreement is not disloyalty. 

Losing a vote does not make the person who beat you your enemy. 

And winning does not give you permission to humiliate the people who disagreed with you. 

That is not the Green way. 

And being good at disagreement must never mean tolerating racism, misogyny, homophobia or intimidation inside our own movement. 

We discuss. 

We listen. 

We try to understand. 

Sometimes we compromise. 

Sometimes we lose. 

And then we get up the next morning and carry on working together. 

Because the Green Party has an opportunity to become one of the most inclusive political movements in modern Britain. 

Not because everybody agrees. 

But because people with different political histories, religions, and identities can work together without demanding that anybody surrender who they are.

So, to the practical, 

because democracy means very little without economic security.

I want to talk about our young people. 

A group of people who deserve so much more from our politics. 

We hear about this phrase NEETS' all the time

young people not in education, employment, or training. 

But what does that actually look like?

It looks like a million young people who are bored, desperate, and lost.

That's not something we should be OK with. 

Young people should be leaving education with the skills, confidence and opportunity to build a life for themselves and their families. 

Working class kids should be able to dream. 

But more than dream, they should have a genuine chance of making those dreams a reality.

Threatening young people with cuts to Universal Credit if they don't accept short term work placements  

that's not a youth strategy. 

Ignoring the two-way link between mental health and unemployment

that's not choice.  

Failing to take targeted action to connect our young people with jobs of the future

that's not OK.  

Across England and Wales, young people are struggling. 

From Cardiff to Birmingham,

from Leeds to Leicester, 

from Liverpool to Sheffield.

They're forced to compete for a handful of jobs. 

We need to do better. 

That's why today I'm proud to introduce our Youth Jobs Guarantee.

Within our first 100 days, 

Greens in power would launch the first phase of providing a guaranteed job for every 18 to 24 year old lasting up to two years. 

We would start in the areas worst hit by youth unemployment,

with a vision to roll it out across the whole country. 

Meaningful work for young people who need it. 

A proper job. 

A proper wage. 

Proper rights at work by adhering to our workers charter. 

New jobs for the future

aligned with critical national missions

a stronger care economy, 

a green energy transition, 

homes for all, 

a sustainable food system, 

and nature recovery. 

People need power over their own lives. 

Communities need power over their own futures. 

And our economy should serve people, 

rather than people serving the economy.

Britain has changed. 

Our politics has to rise to meet it. 

A confident multiracial, multicultural democracy. 

Economic security. 

Strong public services. 

Opportunities for our young people. 

These are not separate projects. 

They're part of the same task. 

Building a country where people can live with difference, 

exercise meaningful power,

and share a common future. 

That's how hope becomes more than just a slogan. 

Where we have power, we have shown that a better way is possible. 

But hope without action is just a pipe dream. 

And action without a vision leads us nowhere. 

We have that vision. 

Together, we are the hope. 

Now let us get to action.