41 Facts About Marvin Rees

Marvin Jonathan Rees, Baron Rees of Easton was born on April 1972 and is a British Labour Party politician who served as the second and final Mayor of Bristol from 2016 to 2024.

Marvin Rees was created a life peer in February 2025.

Marvin Rees was brought up in Bristol, partly in Lawrence Weston and Easton, by his British mother.

Marvin Rees attended St George comprehensive school in Bristol and later obtained a master's degree in political theory and government at Swansea University, and a master's degree in global economic development at Eastern University in 2000.

Marvin Rees was a freelance journalist and radio presenter at BBC Radio Bristol and Ujima Radio.

Marvin Rees was the Communications and Events Manager at Black Development Agency, an agency devoted to empowering individuals and communities through opportunities to work abroad.

Marvin Rees worked in the United States as an outreach assistant at the Sojourners Community and as a youth coordinator at Tearfund.

In 2012, selected by an individual ballot of Labour Party members in the city to stand for Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees defeated four other candidates for the nomination, including the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Bristol City Council Labour group and a former Member of Parliament, Dan Norris, who would later become Mayor of the West of England.

Marvin Rees found it difficult readjusting to normal life following his election loss.

In 2012, Marvin Rees was the founder and programme leader at the Bristol Leadership Programme, a two-week programme helping a dozen people annually from impoverished backgrounds to attain their aspirations.

Marvin Rees was a member of the Bristol Legacy Commission which dispersed its funds and ceased operating in April 2012.

Marvin Rees is a former director of the Bristol Partnership whose goals are to make Bristol's prosperity sustainable, reduce health and wealth inequality, build stronger and safer communities, and raise the aspirations and achievements of young people and families.

Marvin Rees was again selected to be the Labour candidate for the 2016 mayoral election, easily defeating a sitting Labour councillor in the selection.

Marvin Rees received 56,729 votes in the first round and 12,021 transfer votes in the second round, giving him 68,750 votes overall.

Marvin Rees commissioned an independent report by former Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred, which criticised senior council officers, leading Marvin Rees to say a culture of concealment had previously prevailed so councillors were unaware that agreed savings had not been fully delivered.

Marvin Rees had pledged to gradually increase home building in Bristol toward a 2020 target of 2,000 per year, of which 800 would be affordable.

Marvin Rees oversaw the founding of a city-owned housing company, Goram Homes, created to develop and build homes, re-investing profits to the development of affordable and social housing.

The main reasons Marvin Rees gave for his decision were building cost, financial risk, and job creation.

Marvin Rees argued that a mixed use development would create more and better-paid jobs.

In March 2019, Marvin Rees vetoed the installation of a second plaque to the statue of the Bristol-born merchant Edward Colston as he rejected the proposed wording as failing to adequately describe Colston's role in the Bristol slave trade.

The statue was recovered from the harbour by Bristol City Council, and Marvin Rees announced it would end up in a Bristol museum, where the full history of the statue could be told.

Marvin Rees announced a new commission on Bristol's history, so that there could be a wider understanding of the city's history, including struggles on class, race and gender.

Marvin Rees argued he had made a choice to expend his political capital on employment, housing, education, and tackling racism rather than a contentious symbolic matter.

Marvin Rees noted that action was being taken elsewhere, pointing to the name change of the Colston Hall which had already been committed to before the controversy surrounding Edward Colston gained nation-wide attention, so that the venue would no longer be associated with Colston's values and actions.

Marvin Rees said he was pleased that the statue of Colston was no longer there.

Marvin Rees made a key election pledge to increase the new homes target for 2024 to 2,000 new homes per year, 1,000 of them affordable.

In November 2021 Marvin Rees created the 'Project 1000' board to oversee the development of an affordable homes delivery plan.

In October 2020, Marvin Rees was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects for his work as a "city maker".

Marvin Rees continued to serve as mayor until May 2024, after which a new committee system was started.

In June 2022 Marvin Rees was criticised for taking a 9,200-mile flight to Vancouver to speak about climate change at a TED event.

On 6 July 2022, Marvin Rees announced that a Clean Air Zone for central Bristol would start on 28 November 2022.

Marvin Rees's nomination was accompanied by commendations from local councillors and MPs but received a significant number of criticisms published on the dedicated web pages.

In June 2024, Marvin Rees was appointed an honorary industrial professor at Bristol University, and will work at the university Cabot Institute for the Environment.

In December 2024 Marvin Rees was nominated for a life peerage to become a Labour member of the House of Lords as part of the 2024 Political Peerages.

Marvin Rees was created Baron Rees of Easton, of Saint Pauls in the City of Bristol on 4 February 2025.

Marvin Rees describes himself as the mixed-race son of a British-Jamaican father and white British mother, with his mother raising him as a single parent.

Marvin Rees was born and grew up in Bristol in financially difficult circumstances with seven siblings.

Marvin Rees is married to Kiersten Rees, with whom he has three children.

Marvin Rees lived in Easton from 1978 until 2016, moving shortly after be became mayor.

Marvin Rees is a Christian, attending Hope Community Church in Hotwells and has spoken openly about his faith.

Marvin Rees was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to local government.