The cut and thrust of Bristol politics is sharpening in anticipation of local elections next year.
Bristol voters are set to elect 70 councillors and a city mayor in May 2020.
That’s eight months away, but the flavour of debate at City Hall is already becoming increasingly acidic.
And, as one councillor noted bleakly on Tuesday night (September 10): “It’s only going to get worse.”
Insults flew during full council and the preceding member forum, where councillors have the opportunity to ask questions of the elected mayor.
Marvin Rees accused the Greens of telling “half the truth, just to portray yourselves as the only moral guardians of the planet”.
Green group leader Eleanor Combley, in turn, accused the Labour group of “trying to turn every motion into a party political broadcast”.
Mr Rees criticised the political style of Liberal Democrat leader Gary Hopkins, saying his use of “hyperbole” was “Brexit campaign”-like and a “real challenge to the quality of civic discourse”.
Former Lib Dem leader, councillor Anthony Negus, pointedly suggested there was a “problem which we’re seeing around us at the moment of one person acting as if they are a supreme being”.
Mr Rees dismissed Cllr Negus’s comment as “campaign shtick”.
With barely-concealed anger, Conservative councillor Claire Hiscott suggested to the mayor that his administration should thank the opposition when they come up with good ideas, as it would only be “polite”.
Mr Rees responded by questioning the integrity of some members, insinuating that some were not trustworthy and sought to “sabotage things”.
Bristol City Council elections, which are held every four years, are scheduled for May 7, 2020.
Mayoral elections are held on the same day.
Mr Rees will seek re-election as Bristol’s Mayor, having been re-selected by the Labour party as their candidate.
Sandy Hore-Ruthven is standing for the Greens, while Mary Page is representing the Liberal Democrats on a ticket of scrapping the position of elected mayor altogether.
Tory leader Mark Weston has said his group will also seek to end the mayoralty, but will be fielding a candidate, yet to be announced.
Bristol got its first elected mayor in 2012, after the new office was created following a public referendum backing the new political structure.
Liberal Democrat George Ferguson presided over the city for the first four-year term, and was replaced by Labour’s Marvin Rees in 2016.
