Natalie Louise Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (born 10 February 1966) is a Australian-British politician and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who served as Leader of the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; cy, Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr, kw, Party Gwer Pow an Sowson ha Kembra, often simply the Green Party or Greens) is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla ...

from 2012 to 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in Theresa May's 2019 resignation honours. Born and raised in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, she began her career as a journalist with regional newspapers in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

before leaving in 1995 for Thailand, where she worked for

Australian Volunteers International Australian Volunteers International or AVI recruits skilled professionals from Australia to work with partner organisations in Asia, the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Its work focuses on reducing poverty, promoting human rights and gender ...

and the ''

Bangkok Post The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount a ...

'' newspaper over the next four years. Since settling in Britain in 1999 she has contributed to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

''. Her election as leader of the Greens came six years after she joined the party in January 2006.

Early life

Bennett was born on 10 February 1966 in

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station ** Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the P ...

, a suburb of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, Australia, the daughter of John and Joy Bennett. She was born to

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

teenage parents: a part-time secretary and an apprentice carpenter. Her mother was killed in a car crash in 1989. Having been awarded a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

, she was educated at MLC School, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

day school for girls in Burwood,

.Ferraro, Carmela
"Force of nature"
. Inside Story. 17 April 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2014. She then took the degrees of

Bachelor of Agricultural Science The Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BSAg) or the Bachelor of Agriculture (BAg) is the undergraduate academic degree awarded by tertiary faculty of agriculture. The program is typically four years of study at postsecondary level. In Canada, t ...

(BAgrSc Hons) at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(BA Hons) in Asian Studies at the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 18,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 3,000 students See also *New England Colle ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA) in

Mass Communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

from the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...

, graduating from the latter in 2001. She was the first member of her family to attend university.

Journalism career

Bennett began her career in journalism in

, where she worked for various regional newspapers including the ''

Northern Daily Leader The ''Northern Daily Leader'', previously published as ''The Tamworth Daily Observer'', ''The Daily Observer'' and ''The Tamworth Observer and Northern Advertiser'', is a daily newspaper produced in the city of Tamworth, New South Wales, Austral ...

'' in Tamworth. She left Australia in 1995, and lived for four years in Thailand where she worked for

in the Office of the National Commission of Women's Affairs, before moving to the ''

'' newspaper, where she was chief foreign sub-editor. She settled in the United Kingdom in 1999, and said in a 2013 interview for the Australian ''Inside Story'' website about the country of her birth: "I can’t imagine going there by choice." In Britain, Bennett has written for ''

''s "Comment is Free" section since 2006. Bennett was also a blogger. She was deputy editor and then editor of ''

The Guardian Weekly ''The Guardian Weekly'' is an international English-language news magazine based in London, UK. It is one of the world's oldest international news publications and has readers in more than 170 countries. Editorial content is drawn from its sis ...

'' from December 2007 until March 2012. She has also worked for the London-based ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

'' and '' Times'' newspapers. In 2012, she took voluntary redundancy and left journalism.

Political career

Natalie Bennett joined the Green Party on 1 January 2006. Later the same year she stood for the Greens in the Camden Council election in the Regent's Park ward and again in the Camden Council election of 2010 in the Somers Town ward, but was not elected on either occasion. She was the internal communications coordinator on the national executive of the party from September 2007 to August 2011. In January 2010, she was selected to stand for the Parliamentary seat of

Holborn and St Pancras Holborn and St Pancras () is a parliamentary constituency in Greater London that was created in 1983. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Sir Keir Starmer, the current Lead ...

. She came fourth with 2.7% of the vote. She stood next in the London Assembly elections of 2012, as the fourth placed candidate on the London-wide list for the Green Party.

Green Party leader

On 3 September 2012, Bennett replaced

Caroline Lucas Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-elect ...

as leader of the

. 3,127 ballot papers were returned in the 2012 Green Party leadership elections, a turnout of 25.1%. This turnout was explained by Bennett in a BBC interview: "if you hold an election in the month of August you kind of expect that turnout won't be particularly high". On election as party leader Bennett told a press conference that the policies of the Green Party were "the only viable way forward for British people, for the world". In May 2014 she was selected again to contest the Parliamentary seat of

. She was re-elected unopposed as leader of the party in September 2014. In February 2015, an interview with Bennett regarding the funding of house-building on the talk radio station

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

was described by her as "absolutely excruciating". In a halting interview on LBC in which she struggled to explain how her party would pay for 500,000 new council homes it is pledging to build. She told Nick Ferrari the policy would cost £2.7bn, prompting the presenter to ask: “Five hundred thousand homes – £2.7bn? What are they made of – plywood?” In January 2015

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

ruled to exclude the Green Party from the televised debates surrounding the 2015 election, on the grounds that the party had not demonstrated "significant past electoral support in General Elections". Bennett called the ruling "disgraceful and indefensible" and

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

claimed that he was "quite happy for there to be no debates at all" if the Green Party was not included. This decision was later reversed, after which the Green Party's support increased again. The seven-way debate ultimately took place on 2 April, with Bennett present. Bennett came third in the election to the Labour and Conservative candidates, and in 2016, at the end of her second two-year term, did not stand for re-election as leader. At the party's 2016 autumn conference in Birmingham, Lucas and Jonathan Bartley were elected as co-leaders of the party in a job-share arrangement.

2017 UK general election

On 7 October 2016, it was announced that Bennett had been selected to contest the Sheffield Central constituency for the Green Party in the

2017 UK general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing C ...

. Bennett's candidacy saw a drop of 7.8% in the share of Green votes as well as a drop in its position from second to third (out of eight candidates) with 3,848 votes.

House of Lords

Bennett was nominated for a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

age in September 2019, and was created Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle on 7 October 2019. She becomes the

' second current member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

, joining

Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Jennifer Helen Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, (born 23 December 1949) is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London from 2003 to 2004. A member of the Green Party of England and Wales, she was until September 2019 the so ...

. She was introduced to the Lords on 15 October 2019 by Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and

John Bird, Baron Bird John Anthony Bird, Baron Bird, (born 30 January 1946) is a British social entrepreneur and life peer. He is best known as the co-founder of '' The Big Issue'', a magazine that is edited by professional journalists and sold by street vendors ...

, and made her

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

on 17 October 2019.

Electoral performance

Local Government

House of Commons

Political positions

Bennett has considered herself a feminist since she was a young child, claiming that it was her "first politics". She also founded the Green Party women's group and was a trustee of the

Fawcett Society The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Origina ...

between 2010 and 2014. She became interested in environmental issues when she obtained a degree in Agricultural Sciences. She is in favour of abolishing the

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic ( constitutional monar ...

. In an April 2015 interview, she said that she supports the Green Party policy of an economic and cultural boycott of Israel, and also thought that Britain should cease arms sales to Saudi Arabia. She has also voiced support for

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is marr ...

and polyamorous relationships.

Personal life

Baroness Bennett is single and lives in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

. During her time as leader her partner was Jim Jepps, a left-wing activist who was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) for approximately a decade before leaving it around 2003.

Bibliography

*Editor, ''Thailand Country Study: Best Practice Guide on Sustainable Action Against Child Labour'' (1998) *Editor, ''Women's Health and Development, Country Profile Thailand'' (Copy of the paper on Bennett's web site)

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Natalie 1966 births Living people Journalists from Sydney Politicians from Sydney Alumni of the University of Leicester Australian emigrants to England Australian feminists Australian life peers Australian newspaper editors British feminists British journalists British newspaper editors British republicans British social commentators Green Party of England and Wales life peers Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom People educated at MLC School People from Somers Town, London University of New England (Australia) alumni University of Sydney alumni The Guardian journalists The Independent people The Times people Women newspaper editors Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II