Green Party Deputy Leader's Rental Property Holdings Raise Questions Ahead of 'Abolish Landlords' Policy
Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali is the sole director of a company that owns two rental properties in Leeds, despite his party adopting a policy committed to phasing out private landlordism.
The connection, first reported by the Times on 5 September, was confirmed by the BBC the following day. Companies House — the UK's official register of company directors and shareholders — shows Ali is the sole director of MA Holdings, incorporated in December 2021, and the sole person with significant control, holding more than 75% of the shares. The company's registered business activities include the buying and selling of own real estate, letting and operating of own or leased real estate, and management of real estate on a fee or contract basis (BBC News).
MA Holdings purchased the first Leeds property in June 2022 and the second in March 2025. A previous owner and resident of the second property confirmed to the BBC that Ali's company had purchased it and believed it was bought with the intention to be let out.
The Green Party told the BBC that Ali has acted solely in the interests of vulnerable close family members for whom he has caring responsibilities. The BBC reported that Ali does not appear to profit from either property.
The Daily Express also reported the story on 6 September, describing the two properties as private rental buy-to-let holdings.
The purchases predate the Green Party's adoption of its landmark housing policy. In October 2025, delegates at the Green Party's annual conference passed a motion titled 'Abolish landlords'. The motion states that the effective abolition of private landlordism and the private rented sector, coupled with mass expansion of council housing, is the only way to end the housing crisis.
That policy is now official for the Green Party of England and Wales. It proposes increasing regulation and taxes on private rentals to make it difficult for landlords to turn a profit, using existing measures such as imposing rent controls, ending buy-to-let mortgages (loans designed specifically for buying property to rent out), and giving councils the right to buy a rental property when sold at a discounted price.
Green Party MP Carla Denyer told the BBC that the 'Abolish landlords' conference motion does not actually abolish landlords.
The broader political question here is one of optics and timing. Ali's second property purchase, in March 2025, came seven months before the 'Abolish landlords' motion was carried at conference. Even with the party's explanation that the properties serve the interests of vulnerable family members, the juxtaposition of a deputy leader's real estate holdings with a policy explicitly designed to squeeze private landlords into unprofitability is a tension the party will need to manage. The fact that Ali does not appear to profit from the properties, as the BBC reported, narrows the charge considerably, but it does not eliminate it entirely — the company's stated business activities include letting and operating real estate on a fee or contract basis, which sits uneasily alongside a motion to abolish that very sector.
There is also a four-nations dimension worth flagging. The 'Abolish landlords' policy applies to the Green Party of England and Wales. Housing is a devolved matter, meaning rental regulation in Scotland is the responsibility of Holyrood (the Scottish Parliament), and in Northern Ireland of Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly). The Scottish Greens and Green parties in Northern Ireland operate under separate structures. The properties in question are in Leeds, firmly within the English jurisdiction to which the England and Wales policy would apply.
Companies House searches for 'Mothin Ali' also return two other company records: one incorporated in April 2013 at an address in London E7, and another dissolved in June 2012 at a different London E7 address. The dissolved company predates MA Holdings and its relationship to Ali, if any, is not established by the available reporting.
For Westminster-watchers, the episode fits a familiar pattern: a politician's personal financial arrangements sitting awkwardly alongside their party's stated policy positions. The Green Party's explanation — caring responsibilities for vulnerable family members — is specific and narrow. Whether it satisfies scrutiny from political opponents and the lobby (the press corps accredited to cover Parliament) remains the live question as the party seeks to advance its housing platform with a deputy leader whose company is, by its own Companies House registration, in the letting business.
