News / Marvin Rees
Marvin Rees says the way Carla Denyer does politics is ‘demoralising’
Marvin Rees says that when he sees the name of Green Party leadership challenger Carla Denyer, his “heart often sinks”.
“It’s the usual, kind of, you know, chess game trying to get a tweet or a blog out of the answer that feeds that line that, you know, Labour Party don’t care about the planet and I don’t care about the planet and all that type of stuff, which is the only thing which is so just demoralising in the way that you do politics.”
The councillor for Clifton Down, who was instrumental in Bristol declaring a climate emergency in 2018, was asking a question of the mayor at a member forum meeting at City Hall.
is needed now More than ever
Member forum is held for one hour before each full council meeting, and is an opportunity for councillors of all parties to ask questions of the elected mayor.
Rees reminded Denyer that the city council has recently launched an Ecological Emergency Action Plan, “but again you spend your time telling everyone it’s rubbish, and that’s fine, that’s your prerogative, but you know, we need people to turn up with some real ideas”.
In his state of the city address in 2019, Rees said that “we urgently need an improvement in the quality of our civic discourse”.
He also said: “As Michelle Obama said, ‘When they go low, we will go high.’ We will do positive politics.”
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Read more: How Bristol can become the first net-zero city: Meet our expert panellists
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On Wednesday, Denyer said: “Last night I asked Bristol’s elected mayor to support a couple of national and international initiatives that will help tackle climate change. These are proposals that other cities, and other Labour council leaders, have already backed, so I hoped they would not be controversial.
“The mayor declined to endorse the Climate & Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill tabled to Parliament, on the basis that it’s a Private Members’ Bill and not supported by the Government so he thinks it will not pass.
“But the same was true of the Private Members Bill that eventually led to the Climate Change Act 2008, and other Labour council leaders and MPs have endorsed the CEE bill.
“I think a lot of Labour voters will be disappointed to learn that our Labour mayor doesn’t think it’s worth proposing something if the Tories won’t agree with it.”
Marvin Rees was elected as Bristol mayor for the second time in May – photo: Bristol City Council
Denyer added that “there is a wider issue about how Marvin Rees responds to Bristol’s elected councillors and engages with full council”.
She said: “Member Forum is a rare opportunity for all councillors to make requests to or ask our mayor questions.
“Bristol is ill served by the mayor using it as a podium to attack opposition councillors for doing just that.
“It is strange that although Bristol has declared climate and ecological emergencies, the mayor seems to resent councillors – or even residents – who ask him to take decisive action, or express a clear position, on issues related to the climate crisis.”
Main photo: Bristol City Council
Read more: Rees scolds Bristol’s youngest councillor for asking ‘disappointing question’
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