Mothin Mohammed Ali ( ; born 12 January 1982) is a British Bangladeshi politician, serving 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.

Early life Ali was born on 12 January 1982 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and he is of Bangladeshi descent. His family moved to the UK in the 1960s, and his father worked as a unionised steelworker in Sheffield.

In 2000, Ali moved to the Gipton and Harehills area of Leeds.

Political career

Move from Labour to Green Party (2020) 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.

Leeds City Council (2024–present) Ali began campaigning for local election as the Green Party candidate for the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council in 2022; this was one of the UK's poorest areas, 40% of whose population was Muslim, with over 65% coming from minority ethnic groups.

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 ("Allāhu ʾAkbar"), which means "God is the greatest" in Arabic. He was investigated for the comments made in his victory speech. 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. 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.

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. Some other Leeds Green Councillors called on Ali and Group Leader Penny Stables to have the party whip suspended.

Green Party Deputy Leader (2025–present) During his campaign for the 2025 Green Party of England and Wales deputy leadership election, Ali came under criticism from other Green-Party members for a perceived lack of support for LGBTQ issues. Ali was the only candidate not to sign a pro-LGBTQ pledge, stating that he chose not to sign any pledges from any special interest groups. Ali in an interview declined to state whether he believed that trans women are women, but has also stated that Muslims and LGBTQ people should "come together" as minority communities targeted by the far-right.

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. 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.

Campaigns and activism

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 condemned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. 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. 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. In later interviews, he noted that he had experienced extensive harassment following media coverage of the incident, including the puncturing of his car tyres, and 5Pillars reported that he had required police protection.

Harehills riot During the 2024 Harehills riot, Ali formed what he called "a human shield" to stop violence escalating and appealed for calm. Ali was erroneously accused of taking part in the unrest by some far-right political commentators, and as of September 2024 was raising money to take legal action against his alleged libellors. The Muslim Council of Britain commended Ali for his "bravery and service" during the unrest. Following the unrest, Ali organised community meetings, particularly developing his contacts with the local Roma community.

DigItOut campaign 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. 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. 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.

Personal life Ali is a Muslim. As of 2022, he worked as an accountant during the day and taught Islamic studies in the evenings.

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. In 2022, he was featured on the BBC programmes Marcus Wareing's Tales from a Kitchen GardenDominic Penna, "Green Party councillor who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' after election says critics are Islamophobic", The Telegraph (7 May 2024). and Blossom Trees and Burnt Out Cars; in the same year he began craft production of achar made from home-grown ingredients.

Business interests Ali is the sole director of MA Holdings, a limited company which holds two buy-to-let properties in Leeds, although Ali does not appear to profit from either of them. The purchase of properties occurred before the Green Party's October 2025 policy of phasing out private landlord ownership.

Electoral performance

May 2024

May 2023

May 2022

References

External links

Personal website MyFamilyGarden