‘The mayoral system is only a defence against the past behaviour of Labour in Bristol’

It’s quite clear that some movers and shakers in Bristol are alarmed at the fact a referendum is taking place in May on whether to keep the mayoral model of city governance.

Although it’s interesting that those most alarmed at a second referendum seem to be the same people who most eagerly wanted the first referendum.

One thing we see repeated endlessly by the mayoral system’s cheerleaders in the media – usually without any critique or assessment for truthfulness – is the story about the political “instability” that Bristol apparently suffered before the mayoral system came along.

There were either two, or five, or seven, or 73 different leaders in that period, depending on who you ask!

Most city councillors and many current journalists weren’t involved back then, so I’ll review here the historical facts about changes of political power in Bristol since the new millennium.

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Read more: ‘Bristol’s mayoral system has fallen victim to the bloody-mindedness of Bristolians’

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2002: The Labour Party loses council leader George Micklewright in elections. Diane Bunyan takes over as council leader.

2003: The Labour Party loses council majority and Bunyan, but is still largest party by a big margin. The Labour Party administration (under councillor Peter Hammond) resigns from power and refuses absolutely to engage in any council leadership roles, leaving the council with no leader for months. After the situation becomes a national embarrassment, prime minister Tony Blair sends deputy prime minister John Prescott to Bristol to force the Bristol Labour Party group to stop acting like children and join a cross-party administration.

2004:  Ahead of crucial elections, the Labour Party group (under Hammond) resigns from power for a second time. The joint administration collapses, and Labour Party take sole control under Hammond.

2005: The Lib Dems become the largest party at elections and take sole control under Cllr Barbara Janke.

2007: After an election campaign against outsourcing of “Home-care” the Bristol Labour Party group strikes a confidence & supply alliance with the Conservative group, allowing Labour to take sole control of the administration (under Helen Holland) despite being only the 2nd largest party. (Once in power they out-source all the rest of Home-care anyway)

2009: Labour Party administration (under Holland) resigns from power for a third time, after councillors block their plan to burn all of Bristol’s waste in a giant new incinerator in Avonmouth. Lib Dems take sole control again (under Janke), and remain in sole control until the first elected mayor, George Ferguson, takes over in 2012.

Could George Ferguson and Marvin Rees be Bristol’s only two elected mayors? – photos: Bristol24/7

Readers may have noticed a theme running through the alleged political chaos and instability in Bristol.

It really shows the astounding brass-neck of Mayor Rees, the Bristol Labour Party and their business supporters, in going to the media to complain that Bristol City Council’s leadership was “unstable” in the period before the mayoral system, given who was almost entirely responsible for that political instability.

The truth then, is that the mayoral system is only a defence against the past behaviour of the Labour Party in Bristol.

Oh, and it just so happens that the mayoral system pretty much guarantees the Labour Party in Bristol will win in future, as well. Heads they win, tails everyone else loses.

Is anyone seriously surprised that the usual mayoral cheerleaders are out in force now to defend the system that benefits them so much?

Mark Wright was Lib Dem councillor for Cabot ward from 2005 to 2016 and councillor for Hotwells & Harbourside from 2016 to 2021

Read more:

• Referendum to decide whether to replace elected mayor with committee system
• Rees’ reaction to mayoral referendum
• Bristol’s mayoral model debate: the batter for and against

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