News / Politics
Labour take control of Bristol
Labour have taken overall control of Bristol City Council, completing a double victory for the party after the election of their mayoral candidate Marvin Rees.
In the local council vote, counted on Sunday, Labour won several close battles with the Green Party putting an abrupt end to their growth in the city.
Labour ended the day with 37 out of 70 councillors in City Hall, one more than the 36 they needed for an overall majority. They grew by seven seats and their majority will mean life in office will be easier for Rees, who needs a majority to pass his first budget early next year.
Across the city, turnout was 44.76 per cent, with the highest in Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze (60.56 per cent) and the lowest in the new ward of Central (35.5 per cent).
The Conservative Party lost two seats, but remained the second largest in the council, with 14. The Greens suffered a setback after a strong few years of gains, finishing the day with 11 councillors, down from 14.
The Lib Dems finished with eight seats, down from nine. Ukip were wiped off the political map, losing their only councillor.
Helen Holland, Hartcliffe & Withywood councillor and the Labour group’s former leader, said that with her party’s overall control and a Labour mayor in office, politics will now change from the way George Ferguson ran City Hall.
She told Bristol24/7: “Together we will be able to hit the ground running and do all the things we want to do in this city.”
Former Green leader Ani Stafford-Townsend, who lost in Central by just seven votes and will be replaced as leader by Charlie Bolton, said she believed the party had stood relatively firm against a strong charge from Labour who mobilised a joint council and mayoral campaign with resources similar to a general election.
She added: “It’s a bit of a David and Goliath affair in terms of how Labour desperately needed to win the mayoral elections. We have held on and continued the Green incline over the past 10 years.”
She said the party will now re-group to form a strong opposition and continue to fight against austerity.
Conservative former assistant mayor Geoff Gollop, who polled the highest vote of any candidate with 4,019 votes in Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze – the final ward in the entire UK to be declared at 7.30pm on Sunday night – said: “We’re down by two seats overall. From a political point of view, for the party in government that’s a positive outcome.”
is needed now More than ever
Read more: Follow the count as it happened live
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