The final four Labour candidates left in the race to be the party’s candidate at next year’s West of England metro mayor election can today be revealed.
Former Bristol city councillors and members of ex-mayor Marvin Rees’s cabinet Nicola Beech and Helen Godwin, Bath & North East Somerset Cllr Lesley Mansell, who finished second in the inaugural election behind Conservative Tim Bowles, and Bristol opposition Labour group leader Cllr Tom Renhard remain in contention.
Both South Gloucestershire councillors who threw their hats in the ring, cabinet member Cllr Sean Rhodes and backbencher Cllr Ian Scott, fell at the first hurdle when they were eliminated by the selection panel, it is understood.
No announcement has been made but sources have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that four contenders are left to battle it out to succeed Labour incumbent Dan Norris, who is also MP for North East Somerset & Hanham and therefore cannot stand at the election next May because of new party rules that prevent second jobs in elected office.
The next stage of the internal process is for Constituency Labour Parties and trade unions to nominate their preferred candidate. This closes on Sunday, October 27, followed by the panel interviewing those who receive at least two nominations before it decides the final shortlist.
Ballots are then issued to local Labour members on Wednesday, November 6, who have two weeks to vote. Mr Norris narrowly defeated Ms Godwin to be Labour’s candidate at the last poll in 2021.
She resigned her role as a city councillor in December 2021 after joining accountancy consultancy giants PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms Beech decided not to seek reelection in May after eight years as a councillor.
Cllr Renhard was previously cabinet member for housing delivery and homelessness before the Greens became the biggest party in the chamber and now lead the authority in a new committee system.