SU Spring Elections 2026 Interviews: James Varney, VP Democracy & Development

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar offered all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

James Varney, current Vice-President for Democracy & Development at the SU, sat down with The Boar‘s Hannah Guthrie to discuss his campaign for re-election.

Throughout the interview, Varney highlighted the work they’ve done this year to improve student democracy at Warwick, put students at the forefront of University decision making, and his campaigns for sustainability and ethics.

Why did you decide to run for this position and what makes you stand out from other candidates hoping to be DDO?

“The main reason I decided to re-run is because I’ve done, I think, quite a lot of work this year and I’d really like to see some of that through in the second term.”

Varney says they’d like to continue trying to make the issue of buses “an institutional priority in the next year”.

He also cites his work on “the democracy review and making sure that the elections are as good as they can be” as some of the key work he’s done this year. “I’d be really looking forward to running an even bigger and better set of elections if I was to be re-elected.”

They also note: “I’ve done lots of really great work on sustainability and holding the University to account” during their time as DDO, as well as building “some really great relationships” within the SU.

“I think this officer team has done a real lot of work to try and turn the SU around and truly make sure it’s a student-led and student-focused organisation which really fights for students’ rights and lobbies on their behalf to the University. I’d love to continue implementing that culture into the SU in a second term.”

“I think what sets me apart from the other candidates, firstly is probably my experience – I’ve been in this role for a year, I think I’ve done a lot of good work and hopefully my record reflects that. But I think more generally what sets me apart is my philosophy of making sure the SU is really a student-led organisation and the students are at the heart of every single decision we make: not the University, not SU staff, that it’s really, truly student-led.”

Varney reiterates his experience building “really great relationships with the University, with the Students’ Union staff and trustees” and says he’d love to continue to deliver for students in a second term.

An independent review last year described the position of DDO as more “operational” and less politicised than other Full-Time Officer roles. Do you agree with that and why?

“I agree that the role has become that. I think I would agree that my role has become increasingly ‘operational’ and less political, but I don’t think that that necessarily leads to the conclusion the report suggested, which was to scrap [the DDO role]. In fact, I think I’ve done a lot of work this year to try to re-politicise this role and to really show the value in having a student with lead over democracy and commercial affairs.”

Varney thinks the independent review “took all the wrong lessons” from their findings, and that instead the role “should be de-operationalised” and supported by a “strong student voice team” in order to “create a really strong and thriving democracy at Warwick Students’ Union”.

They also think there should be “more student and officer oversight over our commercial affairs, whether that be Curiositea, the Duck, T-Bar, Food Station, etc., as opposed to having less and leaving it all in the hands of un-elected staff members”.

With declining turnout and engagement in recent SU elections, how would you adapt the SU strategy to make SU democracy more accessible, inclusive, and engaging to the wider student body?

“I think I’d first challenge the assertion that turnout and engagement has declined. Last year we saw a record amount of turnout, obviously in quite unique circumstances”, perhaps referring to the RON campaign in the VP Sports election or the President campaign which ended in ‘procedural irregularities’ on election night, “but it goes to show that people do care when something is on the line”.

Varney also cites the “record number of election candidates” as a demonstration of student engagement. “Every single position is quite heavily contested, and I think there’s some really exciting races.” He says the quality of candidates is such that “some really high-quality candidates are just going to lose because there’s other really high-quality candidates in those positions as well”.

Varney reiterates: “I definitely challenge the fact that turnout is declining. I think we are actually seeing a resurgence in turnout and engagement with our democratic structures. Obviously, there’s still a lot further to go. I don’t think anyone would say there’s not further to go.”

They cite the democracy review and the meetings they’ve had “with students, trustees, some of our officer team, both part-time and full-time” as means “to really figure out what the next direction is” for the democratic structures at Warwick.

He says they are taking lessons from last year’s aforementioned independent review, “but really making sure that again this is student-led and not just an external consultant telling us what to do”. He hopes that students can continue to “decide on their own democracy and what will work for them, whether that be from postgraduate representation, to the representation of marginalised groups such as Trans* and LGBTQ+ students”, or deciding “how our student council functions [and] what our offices look like”.

“The results of [the democracy review] should conclude next term, and then hopefully that can be implemented next year – hopefully by me if I’m re-elected, but if not then by my successor, who hopefully will [take on] a really great set of recommendations to implement, to really take Warwick SU’s democracy and engagement to the next level.”

As the Full-Time Officer leading on sustainability, what new initiatives or services would you implement to extend the current sustainability efforts of the SU?

“This is something that’s been a priority for me this year. There is now a new sustainability page on the SU website, which keeps track of what we’ve been doing and holds us to account to ourselves, but also serves as a really great resource for students wanting to get involved in sustainability, whether that be through our various great sustainability societies, such as Clothes Circuit, the Greens, Climate Justice, et cetera.”

Varney cites the “really great work” of the SU Sustainability Forum this year: “They ran Green Week, they’ve been doing LEAF, which is about sustainable standards in labs, for example, and working hand in hand with the University to push them further to support those sustainability aims.”

Varney says: “I’ve had loads of great wins this year on sustainability.” They “spoke in favour of an eco-park” at the Environment Committee. “That got approved and so hopefully next year I’ll be looking to make sure that project is carried out in full.”

He notes “currently it’s technically unfunded at the moment” but will lobby for the University to fund the project as he thinks “that would be a really great resource for students, staff, and the wider community in Coventry, Warwickshire, and the surrounding areas to really get engaged with sustainability”. The “habitat land” will be south of the Sports and Wellness Hub “where it’s currently just random fields”, and for Varney “that would be something I’d love to push”.

Varney also recalls their passing of a “new sustainable and ethical procurement policy through the SU, which sets out which companies we should and shouldn’t work with based on ethical objections to their practices”. Varney notes this is a significant change from previous years at the SU, when “the previous President defended taking money from, for example, Qatar Airways”.

“But this year, we as an officer team took a really strong ethical stance on that. As a state-owned company, owned by states with a litany of human rights abuses, we said no. That’s something that I’d really love to embed in the second term – that ethical stance by default, as opposed to officer teams having to make those decisions continuously. I’d review all the current partnerships that we have in the SU against that [sustainable and ethical procurement] policy to make sure that we’re really compliant with that and the SU is as sustainable and ethical for students as possible.”

Varney also highlights the role of the Environment and Ethics Part-Time Officer, who he has worked alongside this year, and expresses that “there’s loads of great candidates” on this year’s candidate list.

“Whoever is elected, I’d work really closely with them to make sure their manifesto priorities are realised and they get their support from a full-time member of staff like myself, and that they deserve.”

As DDO, you’ll sit with the SU President on the University Council. How would you ensure that students’ interests are communicated and represented at this higher level?

Varney clarifies that it is the Education Officer that sits on the University Council alongside the SU President, and the DDO otherwise sits on the University Estates and Environment Committee.

“There, I’ve absolutely stood up for student interests every step of the way”, Varney says, citing their action “on the University’s Net Zero plans and the absolute reduction climate targets”.

“Me and Alijah [current SU President] successfully lobbied UEC [the Environment Committee] this year to maintain its commitment about offsetting [fossil fuels], to make sure that offsetting isn’t used as an excuse for further drive and expansion at the expense of the climate.”

“We also raised this year [the issue of] the buses for the first time at UEC and made the University aware of just how pressing a problem this is for students. We raised that in front of University Council members, as well as really, really senior University staff like the finance director and Stuart Croft [University Vice-Chancellor], to really make them aware and to get that on the agenda. I’m having meetings with one of the senior University Council members [soon] to really press forward on the buses.”

“It’s about using the committees that we sit on as officers to really push for student-focused and student-led initiatives and solutions that impact students and not just [catering] to the University at every possible opportunity, like I feel probably previous officers have done.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Full-Time Officer positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

You can also view a list of all candidates and their manifestos here.