Sian Berry: 'I developed my conscience working in London'

Sian Berry joined the Green Party 20 years ago after "developing a conscience" while working for a pharmaceutical company. Ms Berry, who is making her third attempt to become mayor of London, explains how she wants to run the capital from "the bottom up" after being "the average Londoner" for most of her adult life.

"I've always worked," Ms Berry said. "I've worked since I was 14 because I needed to."

Now 46 years old, Ms Berry is the co-leader of the Green Party, a London Assembly member and a councillor. She also volunteers at her local library.

Her route to political prominence has not been straightforward, and it was driven by a need "to keep the lights on", she said.

"When I came to London all I had was my overdraft and my degree. I started working in offices as a temp because I'd learned to type in a previous job."

After graduating with a degree in materials science from Oxford University, she says her most employable skill was "being good at Excel and doing mail merges".

Ms Berry ended up working as a medical writer "writing to doctors on how different cold medicines work".

"After a few years I developed a conscience," she said. "It was a really, really interesting job, but in the end I was working for a big pharmaceutical company.

"Some of the work I was doing was trying to market drugs for things that shouldn't necessarily be medicalised."

Through watching the news and reading up on climate change she "started to learn how the world worked".

"I made a conscious decision to change my career and I don't regret it."

It was at about this time she started attending protests and marches in London.

"I would pick up leaflets from everybody and take them home and read them. That was the first time I was ever in contact with the Green Party."

After her self-described "quarter-life crisis" Ms Berry began working for charities "learning an awful lot about campaigning" and "filling in gaps in what the government provide".

Her experiences inspired her to start running for political roles and branching out into activism.

Ms Berry ran for Camden Council first in 2002.

At about this same time, she founded the Alliance against Urban 4×4s, which received national attention after she began leaving fake parking tickets on cars around Camden and Westminster.

During this period she began working as a web designer at the Department of Medicine at Imperial College, London.

When her unit at Imperial span off to become a tech start-up, she was eyeing up her first bid for the top job in London.

She ran for mayor of London in 2008, coming in fourth and losing her deposit.

But her star was rising within the Green Party. Alongside writing several books on living a more eco-friendly life, she held a series of spokesperson roles.

Others were taking notice of her activities as a campaigner.

The Met Police began secretly monitoring Ms Berry, along with other key Green Party members, according to a newspaper investigation.

She declined to comment on the experience. But at the time she accused the police of "wasting time and our money snooping on Green politicians and campaigners who they think might want to change the status quo".

In 2014 Ms Berry eventually won a seat on Camden Council. Two years later she won a seat on the London Assembly, where she now sits as one of two Green Party representatives.

In 2018 she became co-leader of the Green Party along with Jonathon Bartley.

Ms Berry said: "I very gradually moved to becoming someone who full time tried to change the world.

"And that took a lot of different jobs.

LONDON'S ELECTION: THE BASICS

What's happening: On 6 May, people will vote to elect a mayor and 25 members of the London Assembly. Together they form the Greater London Authority, which governs the capital.

Why does it matter? The mayor has a £19bn budget, is responsible for transport and policing and has a role in housing, planning and the environment. The London Assembly holds the mayor to account. Find out more here.

Who is standing? There are 20 candidates running for London mayor and a full list can be found here.

"All the way through this I never really earned enough.

"I've always been the very average person in London. I think my salary tracked the average salary in London for 20 years."

This, she says, is the inspiration behind her political beliefs.

"I know what genuinely running out of money means. I know exactly how much £20 can mean to you at the end of the month.

"It's just the empathy I can have with people is just bigger because of having lived this very normal life."

As mayor, Ms Berry said she would get more "normal people" involved in decision-making.

"We want to make sure ideas on how we change society come from the bottom.

"You can tackle global issues and do it at a more local level.

"You won't get it right all the time.

"But that's a mess I'd prefer to have than a whole population feeling like they're not being listened to, which is what we have at the moment."