News / Bristol Mayoral Elections 2021
Marvin Rees re-elected as mayor of Bristol
Marvin Rees has been re-elected as mayor of Bristol, beating close challenger Sandy Hore-Ruthven.
The Labour incumbent secured victory in an election that ultimately came down to a two-horse race between red and Green.
Standing in his former school, City Academy, Rees thanked his family and supporters and other candidates, as well as those who voted for him, saying it is “incredibly humbling”.
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Labour secured 50,510 (36.3 per cent) of the first preference votes, while the Greens received 36,331 (26.1 per cent). The overall turnout in the Bristol mayoral election was 41.15 per cent.
In total, Rees received 59,276 votes to Hore-Ruthven’s 45,663.
Rees said: “There’s something poetic for me that I take this re-election in this school that I struggled at. I hope the message that will come out of this is; there is hope.
“We live in one of the most socially immobile countries in the OECD but there can be hope in the middle of all that and that’s what we’ve set out to do as an administration.”
Rees added: “We have tried to be inclusive and focused on delivering social justice in the face of climate and ecological emergencies and we will continue this.”
The newly elected mayor dedicated his victory to his brother, Martin Walker, also known as Sirplus, who died in December.
A mural by Jody in the Mina Road tunnel in St Werburgh’s remembered Sirplus – photo: Martin Booth
The full rundown of results from the first count are as follows:
Tom Baldwin (TUSC): 3,194
Robert Clarke (Reform): 806
Sean Donnelly: 4,956
Caroline Gooch (Lib Dem): 15,517
Sandy Hore-Ruthven (Green): 36,331
John Langley: 1,528
Marvin Rees (Labour): 50,510
Oska Shaw: 389
Alastair Watson (Tory): 25,816
Rees grew up in Easton, Lawrence Hill and St Paul’s and had careers in public health and broadcast journalism before being elected in 2016, when he beat George Ferguson to become Europe’s first directly elected black mayor.
It was an impressive result for the Greens in 2021, who came in fourth in the 2016 mayoral elections.
Speaking after the results were announced, Hore-Ruthven added his congratulations to Rees and wished him the best in leading the city.
He said: “This is a landmark result for the Green Party in Bristol – there is no doubt at all now that the Green Party is a major party in this city.
“I’m so thankful to everybody who voted Green. You have declared clearly that we must tackle the climate emergency, and we must recover from the pandemic in a way that doesn’t leave anybody behind.”
Main photo by Ellie Pipe
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