Cllr Will Duckworth |
|
---|---|
Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales |
|
In office 3 September 2012 – 1 September 2014 |
|
Leader | Natalie Bennett |
Preceded by | Adrian Ramsay |
Succeeded by | Amelia Womack, Shahrar Ali |
Dudley Borough Councillor for Netherton, Woodside & St. Andrew's Ward | |
In office 3 May 2012 – 7 May 2015 |
|
Preceded by | John Davies |
Succeeded by | Qadar Zada |
Personal details | |
Born |
Dudley, United Kingdom |
20 January 1954
Political party | Green Party of England and Wales |
Residence | Dudley |
Will Duckworth (born 20 January 1954) is a Green Party of England and Wales politician, and the party's former deputy leader. He has been the first Green Party councillor in the Black Country after he was elected to Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in 2012. He was elected as the party's second ever deputy leader on 3 September 2012 taking over from Adrian Ramsay. In September 2014, he lost the deputy leadership election with Amelia Womack and Shahrar Ali both becoming his successors.
He was also the West Midlands regional Green Party first choice candidate on the list for the 2014 European Parliament election.
Described by Derek Wall as "a true working class Black Country lad", Duckworth joined the Green Party shortly before becoming a founder of the Dudley Greens in 2009. He became regional treasurer for the party, and stood unsuccessfully in Stourbridge at the 2010 general election.
Duckworth first stood for the Greens in the Netherton, Woodside & St. Andrew's ward in Dudley in 2010, coming last (5th) receiving 168 votes (2.8%). He stood again the following year after campaigning in the ward and received a much improved result coming second with 1,068 votes (28.0%). In 2012 he was elected with 1,525 votes (44.9%) taking the seat from the Conservative Party. Duckworth claims he had completed over a thousand pieces of casework helping out local residents in the two years running up to the 2012 election.
Duckworth stood for Deputy Leader in the Green Party of England and Wales leadership election, 2012, on a joint platform with Romayne Phoenix, who contested the party leadership. Although Phoenix was not elected, Duckworth beat Richard Mallender to become Deputy Leader.
In early August 2012 Duckworth was selected as the lead candidate in the Green Party list for the 2014 European Parliament election in the West Midlands region, where his party finished in fifth place out of ten, with 5.3% of the vote.