Darren dares to Green London

Darren Johnson, leader of the Green group on the Greater London Assembly and head of the environment portfolio in Mayor Ken Livingstone's administration, talks to BBC News Online's Nyta Mann.

Darren Johnson has just become the most powerful Green in the UK. Elected to the Greater London Assembly last week (for which he also stood as the party's mayoral candidate), the leader of its three-strong Green group has accepted Mayor Ken Livingstone's offer of the environment portfolio.

Other Greens have been elected to the Scottish and European Parliaments, but none of them has joined the executives of those bodies.

We won't be pigeonholed into just the narrow environmental agenda any more.

Darren Johnson

For rivals running for the same job, Johnson had something of a cosy relationship with Livingstone during the mayoral campaign.

Early on, the Greens backed Livingstone as second preference for mayor; he in turn backed the Green "top-up" list of candidates for the assembly.

Johnson is grateful for the support but insists his mini-group will have a greater identity than providing Livingstone with left ballast in an assembly dominated by Labour and the Tories.

"We won't just be a Ken fan club, although obviously we do want to work constructively with him and with the other political parties," says Johnson.

"So long as Ken sticks to his own manifesto pledges then we are certainly happy to work with him to actually help achieve those," he adds. The Green group "will be able to hold him to account and make sure that he does deliver on those pledges".

No role for Norris?

Steve Norris: Big leaps required

Much coincidence exists between key Livingstone policies for the environment and those of the Greens. Both back congestion charges and firm traffic reduction targets; both oppose the government's planned Tube sell-off.

During the campaign for mayor Steve Norris, the Conservative candidate, vigorously took the opposite view on all of them.

Now that Johnson holds the environment brief, does he really think it would be possible to work with Norris if the Tory accepted Livingstone's offer - made during and since the campaign - of having a major hand in running transport policy for London?

Johnson concedes that in the fight to become mayor, Norris's socially liberal agenda represented "a huge jump" from traditional Conservative campaigns.

But much more would be required for him to be able to have a serious transport role "because if I have a brief to improve air quality and whatever in London, that would be very difficult if Steve Norris were pursuing policies that weren't bringing down traffic".

"We've seen Steve make some big leaps into a new style of Conservatism but I think he'd have to make some even bigger ones if he was to play a full and proper role in this administration."

In other words, though he doesn't put it this way, Johnson at environment sees working with Norris at transport as just about inconceivable.

Nail in the nuclear coffin

Darren Johnson ran for London mayor as well as the assembly

As well as having the role of scrutinising the mayor's budget and priorities, the GLA can launch inquiries into any area it sees as in the interest of Londoners. One of Johnson's priorities is tackling the transport of nuclear waste through the capital.

"I would like to see an assembly inquiry set up into the safety of nuclear waste trains both in terms of the danger of low-level radiation that's constantly emitted from them and the dangers and horrific consequences if ever there was an accident," he says.

"It's a serious issue and I want to push ahead with that," he says. "I think a proper and effective inquiry into the dangers there and a good well-researched report could be another nail in the coffin for the nuclear industry in this country."

Isn't this the kind of talk, encompassing issues undoubtedly national as well as local, guaranteed to send a shiver down Tony Blair and the government's collective spine?

"They have to get used to it," is Johnson's response.

Clashes between the GLA and government are inevitable and all to the good, he continues: "If you look at the way the devolution agenda works across European and American cities, it's not just about dealing with things purely at a local level. They can put pressure on national government.

"It's healthy in any democracy that there is some sort of tension between the different levels of government. That prevents the sort of control freakery we've seen too much of since this government was elected."

Prescott's plans 'a complete disaster'

Johnson is no a fan of New Labour, believing its economic and social agenda to only marginally differ from what he would have expected from the Tories. As for the government's progress on the environmental front, "John Prescott's integrated transport plan has been a complete disaster".

He intends to make greater progress at a steadier, more achievable pace - as with his plans to ban cars from central London. This would start with a small area in the heart of the capital which would then expand outwards.

John Prescott: Transport plans "a complete disaster"

So where does he first intend to stop people driving?

"We need to consult widely on this but basically starting out from Trafalgar Square and working out to Parliament Square and bringing in Soho and elsewhere.

"It's obviously got to be a gradual process but I think it could have a massive impact on pollution levels in London as well as being a much safer climate for people moving around as well.

"Obviously, you'd have buses, taxis and cycles, as well as provision for delivery vehicles and whatever. But you'd start gradually increasing the size of the central area where cars aren't allowed."

But Johnson and his fellow GLA Greens have no intention of sticking to purely green issues. "We won't be pigeonholed into just the narrow environmental agenda any more, though obviously with the portfolio I've got that is my main brief," he says.

"But that doesn't mean I'll be neglecting those other areas that have always been a key part of the Green agenda - equality and democracy as well as things that are very close to my heart, like gay rights."

On democracy, he has another issue to take New Labour to task over: its attack throughout the mayoral campaign, but particularly following the violence that broke out at the end of the May day anti-capitalist protests, on Ken Livingstone's support for direct action.

"The way so many politicians tried to pounce on Ken about the May day protests, as if he'd been personally responsible for daubing the Cenotaph, was just ridiculous," says Johnson.

He too supports direct action as an honourable method of protest with a long tradition: "We've always said in the Green Party we support the right to protest and a range of non-violent direct action. In its place, it's always had a useful role to play."

Much like the role Johnson now sees for Greens in the Greater London Assembly.