Amelia Helen Womack (born 12 January 1985) is a British

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...

politician. She served as the party's

Deputy Leader A deputy leader (in Scottish English, sometimes depute leader) in the Westminster system is the second-in-command of a political party, behind the party leader. Deputy leaders often become Deputy prime minister when their parties are elected to go ...

from 2014 to 2022. She is a co-chair of the

People's Assembly Against Austerity The People's Assembly Against Austerity (also known as The People's Assembly) is a political organisation based in the United Kingdom that was originally set up to end and reverse the country's government-instituted United Kingdom government auste ...

, and co-founded Another Europe Is Possible. She served as Deputy Leader of the

alongside

Shahrar Ali 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. He stood for election to be leader of the Green Party in 2018, ...

from 2014 to 2016. She was re-elected in September 2016, once again in September 2018 and then again in September 2020. Womack stood as her party's lead candidate in the South Wales East region in the

2021 Senedd election The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It was the sixth Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for ...

; she was not elected. Womack also stood on a joint ticket with Tamsin Omond in the 2021 Green Party leadership election, in which they finished in second place of five candidates vying for the party's leadership.

Education

Womack was born in Newport in

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

. She attended

Bassaleg School Bassaleg School () is a comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years, situated in the suburb of Bassaleg on the western side of the city of Newport, South Wales, United Kingdom. The present buildings of the school range in age ...

, a state comprehensive school in the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Bassaleg Bassaleg () is a village on the west side of Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales. It is in the Graig, Newport, Graig electoral ward and Community (Wales), community. Bassaleg is located northwest of Newport city centre. It is bounded by the A467 road ...

, from 1996 to 2003. She studied a BSc in Environmental Biology at Liverpool University, and went on to complete an MSc in

environmental technology Environmental technology (or envirotech) is the use of engineering and technological approaches to understand and address issues that affect the environment with the aim of fostering environmental improvement. It involves the application of scien ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in 2009, with a thesis entitled ''Who's afraid of environmental law? How the law of Ecocide can secure our environment for business resilience''.

Political career

Womack joined the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

around 2000. She stood as a Green candidate for

Herne Hill Herne Hill () is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the London ...

ward on

Lambeth Council Lambeth London Borough Council, which styles itself Lambeth Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of the 32 in London. The council has been under Labour ...

, in the

2014 United Kingdom local elections The 2014 United Kingdom local elections were held on 22 May 2014. Usually these elections are held on the first Thursday in May but were postponed to coincide with the 2014 European Parliament Elections. Direct elections were held for all 32 Lo ...

, and for

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

, though she won neither seat. She was elected deputy leader of the Green Party in September 2014, delivering her first speech in the role at the party's conference on 6 September. Having been elected at the age of 29, Womack is the youngest deputy leader of any political party in the UK. She stood in the Camberwell and Peckham constituency in the 2015 general election, finishing third with just over 10% of the vote. In September 2015, Womack announced her intention to stand for the

Wales Green Party The Wales Green Party () is an autonomous section of the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) covering Wales. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats. Since 2018, the Wales Green Party has been ...

in the

2016 National Assembly for Wales election The 2016 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 5 May 2016, to elect members (AMs) of the National Assembly for Wales, now known as the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It was the fifth election for the National Assembly, the thir ...

. The Welsh Green Party announced in late October that she had been selected as the lead candidate for the regional

South Wales Central South Wales Central () is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, ...

(

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

) list as well as for the Cardiff Central constituency. Womack's re-election as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales was announced at the party conference in early September 2016. She served a second two-year term. Through her work as an End

Ecocide Ecocide (from Greek 'home' and Latin 'to kill') is the destruction of the natural environment, environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all human populations that are dependent on natural resources for maintaining Ecosystem, ecosystems and ensu ...

Campaigner, she has worked with

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, ''Sky Arts'' ranked her the ...

to promote the change in environmental law and attempt to secure the one million votes required for a

European Citizens' Initiative The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. T ...

. In August 2016, she criticised Byron Hamburgers after they worked with the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

to call their London workers to a fake Health and Safety briefing, whereat immigration officials present at the venue arrested several employees, deporting 35 for immigration offences. Womack was quoted as saying "It's about the family and friends of people who are left behind as well. You don't need to be pro-migration to realise that employing people, having them pay tax and contribute to the company for years and then turn them over to authorities without any responsibility for the chaos caused is the wrong thing to do". In March 2017, Womack reported the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' newspaper to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over a front page photo of

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead (; ; born 1 October 1956), is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretar ...

and

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) sin ...

with the caption "Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it". In her submission she said: "This headline and the further derogatory comments inside the paper would not have even been considered, let alone published, if the two politicians in question had been men". Womack was again re-elected Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales in September 2018. In January 2019 she apologised for tweeting a picture accused of being

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. In February 2019, it was announced that Womack would be the

candidate in the 2019 Newport West by-election, a position she had nominally been selected for in November 2018. The by-election was held on 4 April 2019 and Womack finished in sixth place in a field of 11 candidates, with 924 votes (3.9% of the total votes cast). In August 2019, Womack was again nominated by the Wales Green Party as the candidate for Newport West in a prospective snap general election. Womack stood in the 2019 general election. She again came in sixth place, but this time out of a field of six candidates. She achieved a smaller share of the vote compared to the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, receiving 2.1% of the total votes cast. In June 2020, Womack announced her intention to stand again as deputy leader. On 9 September 2020, it was announced that she had been re-elected by party members for a fourth term. Womack stood as her party's lead candidate in the South Wales East region in the

. In August 2021, Womack announced her candidacy on a joint ticket with Tamsin Omond for the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election. Their joint leadership ticket lost the leadership election to the joint ticket of Adrian Ramsay and

Carla Denyer Carla Suzanne Denyer (born 24 September 1985) is a British politician who has been the Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Adrian Ramsay since 2021 and the Member of Parliam ...

, coming in second place out of five candidates. In March 2022, Womack announced that she would not be standing in the 2022 Green Party of England and Wales deputy leadership election.

Electoral history

2021 Senedd election

2019 general election

2019 by-election

2016 Welsh Assembly election

2015 general election

2014 European elections

2014 Lambeth London Borough Council election The 2014 Lambeth Council election was held on 22 May 2014 to elect members of Lambeth Borough Council in Greater London, England. This was on the same day as other 2014 United Kingdom local elections, local elections. The election saw the Labou ...

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Womack, Amelia 1985 births Living people Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of the University of Liverpool British abortion-rights activists British environmentalists People educated at Bassaleg School People from Newport, Wales