Profile: Sian Berry

Interview: Sian Berry

Sian Berry, who is standing for London's mayor for the Green Party, was born in Cheltenham in 1974.

She had risen through the ranks of her party to become its principal speaker and its national campaigns co-ordinator.

Her definition of a mayoral candidate is "someone who has good ideas, who will represent the party in London, work hard during the campaign and inspire people to vote for them".

Ms Berry studied engineering at Trinity College, Oxford.

After graduating she began a career in medical communications, working as a copywriter.

Now, as well as her political responsibilities, she works as a website manager for Imperial College.

Fuel protests

Before joining her party, she was one of the founders in 2003 of the Camden-based campaign group Alliance Against Urban 4x4s.

This gained some notoriety for slapping fake parking tickets on four-wheel drive vehicles in London.

The group has also claimed credit for influencing Mayor Ken Livingstone to increase the congestion charge for the least environmentally-friendly vehicles.

But it had been the fuel protests of September 2000 which really sparked Ms Berry's political career.

She was angry because, in her opinion, the government caved in far too easily to the demonstrators.

At this point, she decided that it was time get involved in the political process herself.

Having been a Labour voter in 1997, when Tony Blair was elected with a landslide, she said she "felt really let down" and wanted "to do something about it".

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