News / Politics
Rees: ‘I am not a bully’
Marvin Rees has denied accusations that he is a bully, saying that he has lived and worked in Bristol long enough to make it easy for people to find the truth.
Rees has been accused of bullying by politicians, including by members of his own party, and by the former editor of the Bristol Post for the mayor’s “petty and childish” behaviour towards a journalist.
During an hour-long interview for a podcast, Rees was asked if he was a bully, to which he responded: “No, I am not a bully.”
is needed now More than ever
The mayor, who was talking to presenter Neil Maggs on the Bristol Unpacked podcast from the Bristol Cable, also revealed that he did have discussions with police before ‘kill the bill’ protesters were moved off College Green and that he was recently inspired by a U2 lyric while working out in his home gym.
On the allegations of being a a bully, Rees said: “If someone comes and says it, it’s worth just cross-referencing with other people in the city. Pulling the city together in the way that we have since I’ve been elected as mayor would not be possible – in terms of opening up decision making to our city partners – if we approached it in a way that wasn’t okay.
“The youth work I have been involved in over the years, the City Leadership programme, I have worked in the voluntary sector, I have got enough of a track record in the city. It’s not too hard to go out and ask people if they think that this (the bullying allegations) is the truth.
“Some of that is a political game and some of that is people who are sensitive when they’re asked a question back. And what does happen is when I am asked a silly question, I will sometimes ask people why they have asked a silly question.
“I think that’s okay. I actually, dare I say, the unwillingness to take questions now is one of the problems with our political debate. It becomes like a turkey-shoot conversation rather than a genuine conversation.”
On BCfm, superintendent Mark Runacres of Avon & Somerset Police said that he and Rees “decided collectively that it would be necessary to move people on from College Green” after protesters had gathered there on March 23.
Is it the mayor’s role to discuss police tactics? “No it’s not,” said Rees. “And that didn’t… people quote… that’s not what happened. What we talked about was, my conversation with the police was, because it’s their responsibility, all tactics is a police matter.
“What I talked to Mark about and the police was, that one is, we all safeguard people’s right to protest and we want to do it. That’s the line, that’s the balance particularly in the face of Covid, we walked as a city in the last particularly a year.
………………………………
Read more: Rees responds to Friday’s ‘kill the bill’ protest
………………………………
“Now if they (the police) are going to move people on at some point, what I wanted them to make sure was one, they’ve given people ample warning that it’s going to happen, so you don’t just turn up and say, right it’s time to go, you’ve got one minute. You’ve got to talk to people well ahead of time to try to mitigate the potential of conflict.
“And secondly, to make sure they’re talking to people about the level of Covid risk. So I asked the police to make sure they were on top of the level of risk that our public health team would say that was been incurred by the gathering so that one is, that factors into their sense of urgency or non-urgency of whether they need to move people on.
“If the Covid risk is seen as very small, then obviously they will feel less pressure to disperse the crowd. I wanted them to be aware of the public health risk and I wanted them to communicate that level of public health risk to the people participating, to try to make it as conversational and predictable as possible.”
When asked whether he would like to be an MP when his time as Bristol mayor comes to an end, Rees said: “I don’t know, to be honest.”
He added: “My wife doesn’t want me to. We’ve talked about these things because people ask me. When you start being asked, you’ve got to talk about it.
“I don’t have a life plan. I didn’t have a life plan to become mayor of Bristol because there was no mayor. My point has been, I want to do good things.”
………………………………
Read more: Rees recognised with award for being ‘exceptional urban leader’
………………………………
Bristol’s mayor said that he was listening to a U2 song, Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, while working out recently in his home gym.
Rees said: “The line really spoke to me: ‘I’m not afraid of anything in this world, there’s nothing you can throw at me that I haven’t already heard’.
“So when people say, isn’t it tough being mayor and that. Well, yeah, but I’ve been through worse. Angry people shouting at me or writing mean things on social media, I’ve been through worse.
“It all comes in context. And not only have I been through worse, but other people have been through worse.”
Main photo: Marvin Rees
Read more:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
