News / Politics
Emotion, backslapping and fond farewells at final cabinet meeting
The last game of Marvin Rees bingo was played in City Hall on Tuesday afternoon as the mayor chaired his final cabinet meeting.
Martin Luther King, the Statue Wars documentary, clickbait, the Merchant Venturers. They were all here for the Rees completionist.
“I’ve just got off the phone today with mayors from around the world,” said Rees, whose black Adidas Samba trainers could be glimpsed under the table where he was sitting, occasionally checking his phone while cabinet members spoke.
is needed now More than ever
While the mayoral role has been scrapped and Rees’ future job prospects remain unclear, several of his cabinet are standing for re-election in May and Rees wished them luck for May 2.
“I think I need to be careful of somehow, some way, being in cabinet, but obviously I’m wishing Tom (Renhard) and the Labour group all the very best for (the) elections, standing on a fantastic record for the city,” he said.
One by one, members of his cabinet also praised Rees’ time as mayor, with deputy mayor Asher Craig saying she was not expecting to feel so emotional at this final meeting.
With one broken projector screen in the council chamber behind Rees, it was fitting that one of the items approved at the meeting was a million-pound IT upgrade to allow more Bristol City Council meetings to be webcast.
The cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon was almost the 100th to take place since Rees was elected mayor in 2016, with almost 1,100 papers being considered.
The first cabinet member to thank Rees was Marley Bennett, who thanked the outgoing mayor for all of his support and revealed that the person who sends him the most messages about fly-tipping was Rees, with Rees later revealing he has on several occasions approached taggers.
“On my way home from work, I have come across a couple of people tagging on a couple of occasions and intervened myself, much to the consternation of my office,” Rees reminisced.
“But my line was, what they were doing wasn’t very good. If you are going to graffiti, at least be good at it. If you need to practice, practice in your bedroom is what I shared.”
A mural to rapper Sirplus, also known as Marvin Rees’ half-brother Martin Walker, was painted by Jody and Turoe in St Werburgh’s in 2023 – photo: Martin Booth
Deputy mayor Craig Cheney thanked Rees “for all you have done on behalf of Bristol over the last eight years”.
Cheney added: “Even as deputy mayor, the levels of scrutiny and implications and accusations, the unfair criticism that you receive and the abuse… is an incredibly difficult thing that is hurtful to you and to your family and to us and ours as well, and so just a massive thank you for staying on the straight and narrow after all of that.”
Ellie King, who is standing for re-election in Hillfields, said: “As a woman in your cabinet, I want to thank you for your support to me personally.
“You’ve obviously been very collaborative, very supportive and taken time to make sure that I feel supported so I just want to thank you personally for that and for all of your hard work…
“It’s just been an absolute privilege to have served in your cabinet. Thank you for your service to the city.”
“Okay,” replied Rees, clearly not keen to get swept away by the platitudes.
Bristol’s two deputy mayors, Asher Craig and Craig Cheney, are both not seeking re-election as councillors in May – photo: Bristol City Council / YouTube
Asher Craig added: “I think for me, what’s really important is that the journey that the city has been on, that journey needs to continue.
“I know that there are a lot of people in my community that are highly concerned that (Bristol City Council) will go backwards and will kind of throw out a lot of the good work that we have done in trying to address all inequalities whether that is disability, race, on gender, LGBTQ+.
“We have made some great strides here in this city and it’s really important that we don’t turn back the hand of time.
“The new administration has to kind of keep driving this work… If it’s our party, I’m not stressed. But I do worry, trust me, and I’m not the only one worrying in the city, all of our kids are worrying as well as their families.”
Rees replied: “I think there’s a very superficial understanding of race and race inequality that is about can we all be nice to each other, maybe eat some ethnic food every now and again.
“And it’s not that. It’s a lot more sophisticated than that. It’s the thing that Martin Luther King often talked about, superficial analysis verus deeper understanding, systemic problems, it’s not always about hostile individuals, you can have people who are properly right on politically.
“But they oversee organisations and systems that systemically churn out inequality and that’s much harder to get a hold of and I know that’s what you (Craig) and by extension we in this administration have been about so thank you for your leadership on that.”
In her last meeting, Craig said: “Am I getting emotional? Why am I getting emotional? I didn’t think I would…
“As I’ve said before, it would be a travesty if we did not follow through and make sure that every child in this city including Black and minoritised young people not only feel that they belong but they also get the same shot as everybody else does in this city.
“It can’t be right that only eight per cent of children and young people in Hartcliffe go to university compared with something like 97 per cent in Clifton, it’s crazy, it’s crazy.
“So we all as a city, and this isn’t just on the council alone, it’s everybody, needs to pull together and drive the change that our children deserve and this city really needs.
Rees then succinctly brought proceedings to a close: “That’s the end of today’s cabinet meeting. Thank you everyone for attending.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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