Bristol's New Shadow Minister for Foreign Fruit and Veg: When Avocados Matter More Than Knife Crime.
On £91,346 to represent Bristol Central in Parliament, Carla Denyer's in St Paul's - where 37 weapons offences happened in 12 months - telling residents which vegetables to boycott.
Here’s the video. Bristol Central’s MP, Carla Denyer, is in St Paul’s talking about her latest, fashionable passion project. Not knife crime. Not the unsolved murders. Vegetables, and the like in shopping terms.
She’s joined the Bristol Apartheid Free Zone campaign (whatever nonsense that is), door-knocking through St Paul’s to recruit households into avoiding Israeli produce. Her salary? £91,346 of taxpayer money. Her job? Representing Bristol Central in Parliament, championing constituent safety.
Her actual current activity? Shadow Minister for Foreign Fruit and Veg (self-appointed job creation role).
The Body Count.
Let’s talk about what’s happening in St Paul’s while an MP discusses avocados.
July 2023: Eddie Kinuthia, 19, fatally stabbed. No one charged.
March 2024: Alex Mamwa, 30, killed. Metres from where Eddie died.
Two murders in nine months. Two families destroyed. Two cases needing parliamentary pressure.
Between March 2024 and February 2025, St Paul’s recorded 37 possession of weapons offences. One every ten days. Bristol-wide, knife crime has tripled in a decade. The 2024 figure: 1,953 knife crimes, up 26 per cent from the previous year.
Where’s the MP for Bristol Central? What parliamentary questions has she tabled about police funding for knife crime units?
She’s promoting vegetable boycotts.
What £91,346 Buys.
MPs earn £91,346 to represent constituent interests. Champion local safety. Hold authorities accountable.
When you represent a constituency where teenagers are dying and weapons offences happen every ten days, that becomes your parliamentary priority. Not because it’s politically advantageous. Because children are dying.
Carla Denyer holds four official Green Party spokesperson roles: Immigration, Energy and Net Zero, Science and Innovation, Women and Equalities. National policy portfolios. Legitimate work for a small party.
Her parliamentary record on Bristol knife crime? Her written questions to ministers: child poverty strategy, immigration settlement rules, maternity services, Net Zero commitments.
Her public video content: boycotting Israeli vegetables in St Paul’s.
The pattern is clear.
The Tools She’s Not Using.
An MP has specific tools. Parliamentary questions that force ministerial responses. Select committee positions that scrutinise police funding. Media platforms that keep pressure on unsolved murders. Coalition-building that secures resources for youth violence prevention.
Eddie Kinuthia’s mother, Irene Muthemba, spoke publicly about her son’s unsolved murder. No one charged. Seven months on, she called it an “endless nightmare.”
Where was her MP using parliamentary privilege to keep pressure on this case?
Door-knocking about avocados.
The Moral Equation.
Strip away the politics. Strip away the Palestine debate.
A straightforward transaction: constituents pay an MP £91,346 to represent their interests in Parliament and hold authorities to account on local safety.
Bristol Central covers economically mixed areas. Affluent Clifton alongside St Paul’s where 61 per cent of older residents are income deprived. The constituency needs an MP applying sustained parliamentary pressure on police funding for knife crime prevention, youth service cuts that created the perfect storm for violence, unsolved murder cases, multi-agency coordination on weapons offences.
The public record shows national policy questions, four spokesperson roles, video content promoting consumer boycotts in high-crime areas.
When constituents see their MP door-knocking about Israeli produce while knife crime triples and murders go unsolved, they’re entitled to ask: is this what £91,346 buys?
What Parliamentary Pressure Actually Looks Like.
Tabling written questions about police funding for Bristol knife crime units. Forcing Home Office ministers to answer on record.
Joining select committees that scrutinise youth violence prevention. Using that platform to question why Bristol’s seen a 26 per cent increase while funding drops.
Coordinating with other Bristol MPs to present united parliamentary front on unsolved murders.
Building coalitions with backbenchers from other high-crime constituencies.
Visiting families of victims. Using parliamentary privilege to speak their names in the Commons. Making sure Eddie Kinuthia and Alex Mamwa aren’t forgotten statistics.
That’s what £91,346 should buy. Relentless, unglamorous, grinding parliamentary work that slowly shifts policy and keeps pressure on authorities.
What Bristol Central’s getting: an MP whose visible public activity in St Paul’s is promoting vegetable boycotts while weapons offences happen every ten days.
The Outcome
Parliamentary effectiveness compounds. The MPs who shift policy on knife crime relentlessly work the system - questions leading to debates leading to amendments leading to funding commitments. It’s grinding work. Most of it fails. The bits that succeed do so because of accumulated pressure over months.
Every hour spent promoting boycotts is an hour not spent building that pressure.
The outcome is predictable. Denyer’s political brand strengthens among activists. Palestine solidarity movements cite Bristol as a model.
Meanwhile, knife crime in Bristol continues its upward trajectory. Another 1,953 incidents this year. More families destroyed. More unsolved cases. More teenagers carrying blades because they don’t feel safe.
And Bristol Central has an MP whose public activity in the highest-crime areas involves telling residents which vegetables to avoid. Nothing more dangerous than an errant avocado running amok in the community, right?
When Avocados Trump Safety
Think about the optics.
St Paul’s: 37 weapons offences in 12 months. Two unsolved murders. Families grieving. Community terrified. Teenagers dying across Bristol.
Into this landscape walks an MP on £91,346. Camera person(s) in tow.
Not about knife crime. Not about police accountability. Not about the unsolved murders.
About Israeli avocados, and other products.
The disconnect isn’t political. It’s moral, and completely out of touch.
Serena Wiebe, 21, lost her friend Eddie Kinuthia to a fatal stabbing in July 2023. She joined the Labour government’s anti-knife crime coalition, working to halve knife crime in a decade. She works at Empire Fighting Chance, a Bristol boxing gym helping young people escape violence.
Her response to the latest statistics: “I’m not surprised at all and it’s going to keep going up if we’re not doing enough. There’s not enough being done since all these young people passed away.”
Where’s Bristol Central’s MP in this fight? What parliamentary pressure is she applying? What resources is she securing?
She’s in St Paul’s. On camera. Talking about vegetables.
The Job vs The Diary
Bristol has four MPs. Three Labour in government-aligned constituencies. One Green opposition MP whose value proposition is holding power to account.
Darren Jones, formerly Bristol North West MP, became Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Senior Cabinet roles with direct influence over government priorities. He grew up in Lawrence Weston, attended a state comprehensive, spoke openly about poverty.
That’s representation translating into leverage. That’s a Bristol voice at the table when decisions get made.
What’s Bristol Central’s leverage on knife crime? On police funding? On youth violence prevention?
A video about criminal, Middle-Eastern vegetables.
The job description says: represent Bristol Central in Parliament, champion constituent safety, hold authorities accountable on matters of life and death.
The diary says: promote consumer boycotts in areas where weapons offences happen every ten days.
Where This Ends
The video’s out there. Denyer in St Paul’s, promoting the Bristol Apartheid Free Zone, celebrating businesses that have signed up.
It’s authentic to her values. Consistent with Green Party politics. Energising for her base.
It’s also a perfect encapsulation of misaligned priorities.
An MP on £91,346, in a neighbourhood with 37 weapons offences in 12 months and two unsolved murders, talking about which vegetables to boycott.
Eddie Kinuthia’s murder: unsolved. Alex Mamwa’s murder: ongoing investigation. Bristol knife crime: up 26 per cent. Weapons possession in St Paul’s: every ten days.
And Bristol Central’s Shadow Minister for Foreign Fruit and Veg (self-appointed) is door-knocking about Israeli avocados, and other products.
The teenagers dying on Bristol’s streets won’t save themselves. The unsolved murders won’t solve themselves. The weapons offences won’t stop themselves.
And an MP promoting vegetable boycotts isn’t going to change any of it.
That’s the pattern. That’s the likely outcome. And that’s what Bristol Central’s paying £91,346 to not get fixed.