Siân Berry wants to be the Green Party's candidate for Mayor of London in 2016

The Green Party came in third place ahead of the Liberal Democrats in 2012

Sian Berry, Green Party councillor

Siân Berry is standing to be the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of London in next year’s capital elections, she has announced.

Ms Berry, who is a Green councillor for Highgate in the borough of Camden, previously stood as the party's candidate in 2008.

“Our city is in crisis thanks to inequality, dirty air, and a broken housing system. But London is full of communities, movements, and campaigns who are building a new kind of politics,” she said on her campaign website.

“They need an ally in City Hall. The Greens have a duty to bring the energy of that new politics into a race for Mayor, and to put forward a credible alternative in this election.”

The Green Party’s candidate in 2012, Jenny Jones, came in third place ahead of the Liberal Democrats with 4.5% of the vote.

The environmental campaigner is hoping to build on the success of Baroness Jones, who sits on the London Assembly and in the House of Lords.

“When I ran for Mayor in 2008 the Green Party had around 800 members in London. This time we have a talent of 10,000 to tap in to,” Ms Berry said.

Other candidates are likely to stand to represent the party, which has not yet selected its official candidate.

The former medical copywriter was one of the party principal speakers between 2006 and 2007, before it adopted the practice of having a single leader.

She has represented Highgate in Camden since 2014 where she replaced a former Green councillor Maya De Souza, who had stepped down.

The Mayoral elections will take place on 5 May 2016. Labour and the Conservatives have no yet chosen their candidates, but current Mayor of London Boris Johnson is not expected to stand again.