Bristol City Council is elected by thirds and there are two councillors per ward, each serving a four-year term. Wards never have both councillors up at the same time, so effectively two thirds of the wards are up each election.The Council has long been dominated by the Labour Party, but recently the Liberal Democrat party has grown strong in the city and took minority control of the Council in 2005. The Council Leader is Liberal Democrat Councillor Barbara Janke and the Lord Mayor is Conservative Councillor Peter Abraham.

Bristol’s Westminster constituencies currently cross the borders with neibouring authorities, and the city is divided into Bristol West, East, South and North-west and Kingswood. Northavon also covers some of the suburbs, but none of the administrative county. At the next election the boundaries will be changed to coincide with the county boundary. Kingswood will no longer cover any of the county, and a new Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency will include the suburbs in South Gloucestershire.

There are currently four Labour and one Liberal Democrat MPs. Bristol has a tradition of local political activism, and has been home to many important political figures. Tony Benn, a veteran left-wing politician, was Member of Parliament for Bristol South during the 1960s. Edmund Burke, MP for the city for six years from 1774, famously insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first, rather than a representative of his constituents’ interests. In 1963 Paul Stephenson led a boycott of the city’s buses after the Bristol Omnibus Co. refused to employ black drivers and conductors. The boycott is known to have influenced the creation of the UK’s first Race Relations Act in 1965. The women’s rights campaigner Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867–1954) was also born in Bristol.

City Council

Bristol City Council is elected by thirds and there are two Councillors per ward, each serving a 4 year term. Wards never have both Councillors up at the same time, so effectively 2/3 of the wards are up each election. The Council has long been dominated by the Labour Party, but recently the Liberal Democrat party has grown strong in the city and took minority control of the Council at the 2005 election. The Council Leader is Liberal Democrat Councillor Barbara Janke and the Lord Mayor is Conservative Councillor Peter Abraham.