News / Politics
Cabinet minister slams Banks for ‘treating politics like a game’
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander made the short journey from her constituency in Swindon to the Greenway Centre in Southmead on Friday morning to congratulate Helen Godwin on becoming the new mayor of the West of England.
It was just hours after Godwin had been declared the victor in a close contest which saw Reform’s Arron Banks finish second ahead of the Greens.
Alexander could not resist having a pop at one of the self-styled “bad boys of Brexit”, whose party is now well-placed to pick up several council seats in Bristol’s next local elections.
is needed now More than ever
“I know there were some candidates in this election who thought this job was about sitting in a chateau, appointing a deputy and directing them to do the hard work,” Alexander said.
“I don’t know about you but I think the good people of the West of England deserve better than millionaire politicians treating politics as a game.
“And I know that Helen is going to do the hard yards of making sure that we deliver for people because people are looking for change.”
Alexander said that she was “really really looking forward” to working with Godwin “and delivering on (her) ambitions”.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander is in Southmead with new metro mayor Helen Godwin. “My job is to convince people that having a Labour mayor working with a Labour government is going to give them something different,” says Godwin. “They are going to feel a tangible change.” pic.twitter.com/cPTbAEYmUn
— Martin Booth (@beardedjourno) May 2, 2025
In the cafe of the Greenway Centre where a knitting group was meeting in one corner, Godwin spoke to party members including councillors and her fellow former cabinet colleagues Tom Renhard and Don Alexander.
Godwin, who officially starts work as mayor on Monday, called her campaign “a traditional Labour campaign with a modern twist of all of that digital work that we did”.
But she admitted that even on election night, “there were moments when we weren’t quite sure and as Heidi says, people are frustrated, people are wanting to see change and they’re wanting to see that with quite a lot of urgency now”.
Godwin said that her job “is to convince people that having a Labour mayor working with a Labour government is going to give them something different”, despite previous metro mayor Dan Norris also a Labour mayor and overlapping with the Labour government for the last ten months.
“They are going to feel a tangible change,” Godwin added.
“It may not be easy. It may not happen overnight. But I will promise all of you as I have done on the whole campaign trail, that is entirely my focus from now on and I won’t let you down and I won’t let anyone who has voted for us down.”
Main photo & video: Martin Booth
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
