Across the Pond: Larry Sanders, Bernie’s Big Brother and Britain’s Green Voice

 

Most Americans know Bernie Sanders as the fiery senator from Vermont, a lifelong progressive voice for working people. Far fewer know that his older brother, Larry Sanders, has been quietly shaping politics across the Atlantic for more than half a century.

At 90 years old, Larry Sanders isn’t just Bernie’s sibling—he’s an academic, social worker, and longtime Green Party figure in Oxfordshire, England. His story runs parallel to his younger brother’s, proof that political conviction can span oceans as easily as family ties.

From Brooklyn Roots to Oxford Halls

Larry was born Lawrence Sanders on April 29, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York—six years before Bernie. Their parents, Eli Sanders, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, and Dorothy Glassberg, a New Yorker with immigrant roots of her own, struggled to make ends meet. While the family sometimes went without non-essentials, the brothers grew up with a strong sense of fairness shaped by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

“Our parents thought a government ought to be working for its people,” Larry once told The Guardian—a belief that became the foundation of both brothers’ political lives.

The boys attended James Madison High School, where they were part of Brooklyn’s postwar wave of young Jewish radicals, soaking in baseball, pastrami sandwiches, and debates about justice and equality.

A Life Redirected Toward Service

Larry’s academic journey was unconventional. He began at Brooklyn College, enrolled briefly at Harvard Law, and left to care for his sick mother. Decades later, in 1994, he would return to finish a J.D. at Harvard. But by then, his life had already crossed the Atlantic.

In the late 1960s, Larry followed the woman who would become his wife to the United Kingdom. He settled in Oxford, earned a master’s in social work from Oxford University, and spent much of his career as a lecturer on social and health policy. His advocacy work led him into politics, where he focused on defending public services from cuts—often at personal cost, such as resigning from a mental health trust board in protest of policies he believed would harm patients.

Building a Political Path in Britain

Larry’s political affiliations shifted with his ideals. Once a Labour Party member, he became disillusioned under Tony Blair’s leadership and joined the Green Party in 2001. From 2005 to 2013, he served as a county councillor for East Oxford, and he repeatedly stood as a Green candidate in parliamentary and European elections.

Though he never won a seat, Larry’s campaigns amplified Green values with a style that felt familiar to anyone watching Bernie’s rise in America: grassroots-driven, focused on inequality, climate, and the protection of public services.

Brothers in the Fight for Justice

Despite the miles between them, Bernie and Larry have remained close. Both lost their parents by the time Larry was 27, a shared grief that cemented their bond. Their mutual support has crossed borders and campaigns: in 2016, Larry cast his vote for Bernie as a Democrats Abroad delegate at the Democratic National Convention, choking back tears as he spoke of his brother’s fight for working people. Later that year, Bernie endorsed Larry’s run in the Witney by-election, an unusual but heartfelt transatlantic political gesture.

Larry has often described Bernie as “an extremely decent person,” while Bernie credits Larry with sparking many of his early political ideas. “I owe my brother an enormous amount,” Bernie once told CNN.

A Family Legacy of Activism

Now in his late 80s, Larry remains a respected elder statesman of the UK’s Green movement. He raised two children in Oxford, including his son Jacob, who followed his path as a Green Party candidate.

The Sanders brothers’ stories are proof that progressive politics isn’t just a matter of geography—it’s a family tradition. From Brooklyn’s crowded streets to Oxford’s quiet halls, Larry and Bernie have carried the same torch: a belief that government should serve the many, not the few.