Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has tweeted his delight that Marvin Rees has been reselected as the party’s Bristol mayoral candidate.
Last night (April 24) it was revealed Mr Rees had secured enough support from within the party to pass the 50 per cent threshold he needs to be the Labour candidate for the 2020 elections.
The Labour Party has a complicated selection process which meant Mr Rees had to face a trigger ballot, in which every branch of the local party and affiliates voted to either re-adopt him as their candidate automatically or go through a full selection process, in which other candidates can stand.
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He now becomes the third person to officially enter next year’s mayoral race following Green candidate Sandy Hore-Ruthven and Liberal Democrat Mary Page.
Following the announcement, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn took to social media to congratulate Mr Rees.
He wrote: “Delighted @marvinjrees has been reselected as Labour's #Bristol mayoral candidate for 2020.
“What Marvin and @LabourBristol are achieving in the face of austerity shows what will be possible with a Labour government working with Labour councils to invest in all our communities.”
The praise was not lost on Mr Rees who tweeted he “really appreciated” the support.
He wrote: “Looking forward to campaigning with you and introducing an approach and policies that reintroduce #hope to our country.”
Mr Rees was elected as the city’s mayor in 2016, beating the Independent candidate and former mayor George Ferguson.
He achieved almost 30,000 more votes than Mr Ferguson who became Bristol's first directly elected mayor in 2012.
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