Ashley Gunstock

Last updated

Ashley Gunstock
Ashley Gunstock (cropped).jpg
Personal details
Born1956or1957(age 67–68)
Political party Green Party of England and Wales
Residence London

Ashley Gunstock (born 1956or1957) is a British Green Party politician and actor. He unsuccessfully ran against Caroline Lucas to become the first leader of the Green Party in 2008 and was a candidate in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election. He is now a great and fun substitute teacher at Haberdasher's Borough Academy.

Contents

Acting career

Gunstock played the role of Robin Frank in The Bill from 1984–1989. [1] [2] In 2016, he collaborated on a translation into English of the Dario Niccodemi play Scampolo. [3] He played Shylock in his own adaptation of The Merchant of Venice in 2019. [4]

Political career

Gunstock is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He was previously a member of the UK Green Party before it separated, running for the party in the 1990 Barnet London Borough Council election. He ran for the successor party in every London Borough Council election until 2014. He stood as the Green parliamentary election candidate in Finchley in 1992, Finchley and Golders Green in 1997 and in Leyton and Wanstead for every election since 2001.

He stood for the London Assembly for the Havering and Redbridge constituency in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections.

Leadership campaigns

In 2007 Gunstock stood to be the male Principal Speaker of the Green Party, a public spokesperson role the party had instead of leaders until 2008. [5] He came in third place with 9.1% of the vote. [6] He was a candidate in the 2008 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election. Caroline Lucas, the other candidate, was considered much better-known in the party. [7] She won the election by 2,559 votes to Gunstock's 210. [8]

On 17 August 2021, Gunstock announced he was running in the party's 2021 leadership election. He said that he wanted to get more Green Party candidates elected in order to address climate change. [9]

Elections contested

House of Commons

DateConstituencyVotes % votesPlace
1992 Finchley 5641.44th
1997 Finchley and Golders Green 5761.15th
2001 Leyton and Wanstead 1,0303.14th
2005 Leyton and Wanstead 1,5224.64th
2010 Leyton and Wanstead 5621.45th
2015 Leyton and Wanstead 2,9747.33rd
2017 Leyton and Wanstead 1,3512.94th
2019 Leyton and Wanstead 1,8054.14th

London Assembly (constituency)

DateConstituencyVotes % votesPlace
2000 Havering and Redbridge 6,8036.25th
2004 Havering and Redbridge 6,0094.76th
2008 Havering and Redbridge 9,1265.45th

Council

DateCouncilWardVotesPlace
1990 Barnet London Borough Council Childs Hill26710th
1994 Barnet London Borough Council St Paul's31411th
1998 Barnet London Borough Council Finchley3658th
2002 Redbridge London Borough Council Snaresbrook3688th
2003 by-election Redbridge London Borough Council Valentines865th
2006 Redbridge London Borough Council Wanstead8107th
2009 by-election Redbridge London Borough Council Wanstead2564th
2010 Redbridge London Borough Council Wanstead8107th
2014 Redbridge London Borough Council Wanstead48410th

Green Party leadership

DateVotes % votesPlace
2008 2107.62nd
2021 2121.85th

Related Research Articles

The Green Party of England and Wales is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay have served as the party's co-leaders. The party currently has four representatives in the House of Commons and two in the House of Lords, in addition to over 800 councillors at the local government level and three members of the London Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wales Green Party</span> Political party in Wales

The Wales Green Party is a semi-autonomous political party within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW). It covers Wales, and is the only regional party with semi-autonomous status within the GPEW. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siân Berry</span> British politician (born 1974)

Siân Rebecca Berry is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion since July 2024, succeeding Caroline Lucas. She was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and was its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's principal speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Bartley</span> British theologian and former co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

Jonathan Charles Bartley is a British politician who was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, a position he shared with Caroline Lucas from 2016 to 2018, and then, from 2018 to 2021, with Siân Berry. He was the Green Party's national Work and Pensions spokesperson and the party's Parliamentary candidate for Streatham in the 2015 general election. He was the Unite to Remain candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood at the 2019 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Ramsay</span> British politician (born 1981)

Adrian Philip Ramsay is a British politician who has served as co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2021 and as the Member of Parliament for Waveney Valley since 2024. He was previously the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2008 to 2012. He served as a Norwich City Councillor from 2003 to 2011. He worked as chief executive of the Centre for Alternative Technology from 2014 to 2019 and from 2019 to 2024 was CEO of MCS Charitable Foundation.

The 2008 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election took place in September 2008 to select the first leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. It was won by Caroline Lucas who received 92.4% of the vote. At the same time, Adrian Ramsay was elected unopposed as the party's first deputy leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamsin Omond</span> British author, environmental activist and journalist

Tamsin Omond is a British author, environmental activist and journalist. They have campaigned for the government of the United Kingdom to take action to avoid climate change.

This article lists the election results of the Green Party of England and Wales in the UK parliamentary, European parliamentary, London Assembly, and Senedd elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Duckworth</span> Former Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

Will Duckworth is a former British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2012 to 2014. He was the first Green Party councillor in the Black Country after serving on the Dudley Borough Council in the West Midlands from 2012 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Womack</span> British politician

Amelia Helen Womack is a British Green Party of England and Wales politician. She served as the party's Deputy Leader from 2014 to 2022. She is a co-chair of the People's Assembly Against Austerity, and co-founded Another Europe Is Possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shahrar Ali</span> Former Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

Mohammad Shahrar Ali, known as Shahrar Ali, is a British politician and university manager who served as deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2014 to 2016.

The 2016 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election took place from July to August 2016 to select a leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. The incumbent leader, Natalie Bennett, announced in May 2016 that she was not going to stand for re-election. The election was won by a joint platform of the party's former leader and only MP Caroline Lucas, with the party's work and pensions spokesperson Jonathan Bartley.

The 2018 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election was held from June to August 2018 to select a leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley had been elected as co-leaders in 2016. Lucas stood down, whilst Bartley stood for re-election with a new co-leadership candidate, Siân Berry. They won re-election in the first round, and Amelia Womack won re-election as the party's deputy leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Ainslie</span> Green Party of England and Wales politician and actor

Scott John Ainslie is a British politician and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Scottish Greens co-leadership election</span>

The first Scottish Greens co-leadership election occurred during the summer of 2019, following a newly adopted constitution by the party. One article of the constitution stated that the positions of co-conveners would be abolished in favour of the newly established positions of co-leaders. It also said that at least one of the co-leaders had to be a woman. Both of the former co-conveners, Maggie Chapman and Patrick Harvie, contested the election, but when the results were announced at the Out of Blue Drill Hall in Edinburgh on the 1st of August 2019, only Patrick Harvie was elected, alongside Lorna Slater. All Scottish Green Party members were eligible to vote.

The 2020 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election took place in August 2020 to determine the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, while an election for the party's deputy leader also took place simultaneously. Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry, who were elected on a joint ticket in 2018, were re-elected as co-leaders while Amelia Womack was re-elected as the party's deputy leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zack Polanski</span> British politician (born 1982)

Zack Polanski is a British politician who has been the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2022. He has been a Londonwide member of the London Assembly (AM) since May 2021, and was also the national spokesperson for the Green Party for democracy and citizen engagement.

The 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election was held from August to September 2021 to select a new leader or leaders of the Green Party of England and Wales. It was triggered by Jonathan Bartley's announcement on 5 July 2021 that he would be standing down as party co-leader. Bartley had been co-leader of the party since 2016, initially serving with the party's Member of Parliament (MP) Caroline Lucas. Sian Berry, who had served as co-leader with Bartley since 2018, did not seek re-election with a new co-leader or by herself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Newham London Borough Council election</span>

The 2022 Newham London Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2022. All 66 members of Newham London Borough Council were elected. The election took place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Green Party of England and Wales deputy leadership election</span> Green Party of England and Wales Party deputy leadership election

The 2022 Green Party of England and Wales Party deputy leadership election was held between 1 July and 7 September 2022 to determine the next deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. Voting took place from 1 to 30 August 2022.

References

  1. "thebillbios.co.uk". thebillbios.co.uk.
  2. Jarvis, Chris (17 August 2021). "Former actor in The Bill to contest Green Party leadership | Chris Jarvis". Bright Green. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  3. "Trio translate Italian play after five years' work". East London and West Essex Guardian Series. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  4. Braddick, Imogen (25 September 2019). "Wanstead actor to star in modern-day adaptation of The Merchant of Venice". Ilford Recorder. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  5. "Greens elect new leader". The Guardian. 24 November 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  6. "Greens elect new leader | Green politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  7. "Green party to elect leader for first time today". The Guardian. 5 September 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  8. Henry Deedes, "Pandora: Leadership election takes a nasty turn for the Green Party", The Independent , 1 August 2008
  9. Jarvis, Chris (17 August 2021). "Former actor in The Bill to contest Green Party leadership | Chris Jarvis". Bright Green. Retrieved 21 August 2021.