MARVIN REES - USE.qxp_Layout 2 22/04/2022 17:21 Page 1
IN CONVERSATION
CITY OF HOPE Marvin Rees has been the Mayor of Bristol for six years. This month, a referendum to decide whether the city continues with the mayoral system is due to take place. Ahead of the vote, Simon Horsford sits down with the Bristol-born politician to discuss his career so far, and what’s next...
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t’s only a short bus ride from Easton to the grand, concave surrounds of the Grade II listed City Hall on College Green, but Marvin Rees’ journey from where he grew up to his current role as Bristol's mayor represents a far greater stride. The first Black city mayor in Europe has been in the role for six years and as we meet at City Hall ahead of the 5 May referendum on whether to continue with the mayoral system, he recalls the first time he stood to be mayor in 2012 – when he was second to George Ferguson. “I was on stage in the conference room at [the law firm] Burges Salmon with three white men of a certain age: an architect, retired accountant and retired GP, and I thought no-one is looking at the stage, but [instead] at this six foot, shaved, black guy on the end, thinking: ‘Oh yeah, he looks like the mayor of Bristol’. One of the most important things that’s happened since then is that when someone runs in the future who looks like me, they won’t automatically think ‘they don’t look like the mayor of Bristol’. Rees goes on to stress the point: “When I gave my concession speech in 2012, one of the things I regret is what I didn’t say. If I did that speech again, I’d say: ‘If you’re a single mum in a flat and it’s cold, you’ve got no money, you’re worried about paying the bills and you’re depressed, there’s hope because that woman’s son has just run for mayor and come second.’” It’s appropriate that in the lobby of City Hall there’s a plaque with the words, “City of Hope” because one of the priorities of Rees’ time in office has been to make Bristol more inclusive. “Since being a kid growing up in the city, I have wanted to make Bristol a fairer place,” he points out. “I grew up not necessarily enjoying life in the city and I want it to be better for people with backgrounds like mine.” For Rees, his various roles prior to be becoming the two-term mayor (among them working with the relief and development agency Tearfund; the social justice organisation Sojourners, based in Washington DC, and the campaign group Operation Black Vote in the UK) have been about being in a place where he can effect change. He’s also recently been appointed chair of Core Cities UK. “Being mayor is the manifestation of that aim at this particular point,” stresses Rees. “I’m not running again in 2024 [regardless of whether the mayoral role continues], so I will have done it for eight years and I will do something else and make space for the city to reinvent itself. I think you come in and make change, then you begin to start embedding things and then the danger is you become a blocker in innovation. Ten years is a good term for a mayor, 12 is too long, so best do eight.” As regards the referendum, Rees believes what’s important is that it isn’t just seen as a debate about the mayoral model, but equally “that 48 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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Marvin Rees is a British Labour Party politician and has served as the Mayor of Bristol since 2016
the committee system has to be debated because it is not as though the people opposing the mayoral model are offering some splendid neutrality. They are proposing a system and we don’t want to take that on by accident without knowing what it is. Just like Brexit,” he adds, “no-one knows what we are stepping into." Crucially, he suggests, the mayoral model gives visibility to leadership. “And that,” he continues, “has a number of benefits – outside of the city, investors and developers know who they are dealing with. We had the national advisory committee on climate change here recently and they wanted to meet me. That is the language of government – we want to know who we are dealing with. That visibility is also important inside the city. I do a press conference every couple of weeks and everything is on the table for good or ill. I am accountable. There is a real advantage for democracy from that visibility.” Opponents argue that the system is flawed with no “checks and balances”, according to one conservative councillor, while a Liberal Democrat counterpart suggested the committee system allows for “equal responsibility” in decision making. Former mayor George Ferguson has also offered the opinion that since the introduction of the West of England metro mayor (a position now held by Dan Norris) in
