Green party re-elects co-leaders Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Isabel Infantes/PA

The Greens leadership partnership of Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley has been re-elected for another two-year term, seeing off a challenge from two other candidates.

Berry and Bartley, who took over from the previous leadership combination of Bartley and Caroline Lucas after easily winning the 2018 leadership election, were always strong favourites to win again.

The contest, for the leadership of the Greens in England and Wales, was also contested by Shahrar Ali, a former deputy leader of the Greens, and Rosi Sexton, a Green councillor in Solihull. Sexton, a former mathematician and elite-level mixed martial arts fighter, now works as an osteopath.

© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/PA Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry.

Bartley and Berry are also both councillors, in London. Berry is also a member of the London assembly, and is the party’s candidate for the London mayoral elections, postponed from May due to coronavirus.

The duo have generally been seen as a success in their first two years in the role, overseeing highly successful local and European elections in May last year.

They also led the party to an increased share of the vote in December’s general election, even though the focus on Brexit and a squeeze by the two main parties meant the Greens’ 2.7% vote share remained lower than the 3.8% recorded in 2015.

Lucas, the party’s sole MP and still its best-known figure, spent two years as joint leader with Bartley, but decided in 2018 to step back, in part to focus on her Brighton Pavilion constituency, but also to spread the focus to other people in the party.

Lucas became the Greens’ first leader in 2008 after the party dropped its previous system of two “principal speakers”. She was replaced as leader by Natalie Bennett in 2012, but returned in 2016, alongside Bartley.

The Greens re-elect their leader, deputy leader and a series of other senior posts every two years.

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