Bristol City Council: Labour control dissolved by Green surge

Labour has lost control of Bristol City Council, a day after the party's mayor Marvin Rees was re-elected.

The party has 24 councillors, down from 33, and was hit by Green Party gains in its heartlands, with cabinet member Afzal Shah losing his Easton seat.

The Greens also have 24 councillors, up from 11, and its ranks include an 18-year-old who helped organise Greta Thunberg's Bristol rally.

The Conservatives still have 14 seats and the Lib Dems dropped to eight.

Amirah Cole, who stood in Ashley for the first time for Labour, won. But the party's other councillor lost her seat to the Greens on a "difficult day".

Ms Cole said she blamed Labour's performance on "lots of protest votes" from people unhappy with the way the party is being run nationally.

"It's more about Labour voters not wanting to vote Labour this time round for various issues. I think that could change in the future," she said.

"What's happening nationally and locally are different. I did a lot of door knocking and a lot of concern was shown by Labour members over what was happening nationally and it's very difficult to split the two and to persuade people that [what's happening locally] is quite different.

"We need to sort ourselves out and I think we would find that a lot of the voters who voted Green will vote Labour next time round," she said.

Lily Fitzgibbon, 18, won for the Green Party in Bishopston and Ashley Down. Her party had previously had a councillor in the ward but also took Labour's.

She said it was "amazing" to be elected and said the Greens' surge in the city was due to "voters realising that there are options outside of the two main parties".

Ms Fitzgibbon was a co-organiser of Greta Thunberg's climate rally in Bristol in February 2020 and has been an organiser with Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate.

"I was finding that not much was coming out of that in terms of our interactions with the council so I decided to see if I could be on the council myself," she said.

Heather Mack, a local organiser for the Greens, won in Lockleaze, with another Green, David Wilcox, taking the other.

She said "exceptional hard work" meant the Greens had taken both seats and that they had both "been on the doorsteps non-stop".

"We have been listening to people, talking to people. We know the concerns in Lockleaze and we know that people wanted that strong representation."

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