Draft:Craig Cheney

Craig Cheney (born 19 January 1978) is a British Labour politician and has been the deputy mayor of Bristol since 2017. He sits in the cabinet of Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol with responsibility for finance, governance and performance. He has been the elected representative of the Hillfields ward in Bristol since 2015.

Early life
Cheney was born at Southmead Hospital and brought up in Hanham, Bristol and attended Hanham High School from 1989 to 1996. Cheney's family struggled financially and he grew up living with his father who was out of work.

Political career
Cheney was elected as the Labour Party candidate to the ward of Hillfields in May 2015 with 41% of the vote. He was elected again in 2016 to the same ward with 46% of the vote. That same year, Marvin Rees was elected as the Labour Party Mayor of Bristol and Rees immediately appointed Cheney to his cabinet with the portfolio 'finance, governance and performance'. In 2017 Rees reshuffled his cabinet and appointed Cheney as one of his two deputy mayors, alongside Cllr Asher Craig, with Cheney taking the formal 'designated deputy mayor' role.

In 2021 Cheney was elected again and once again appointed as deputy mayor with cabinet responsibility for finance, governance and performance.

In 2020, after years of controversy, Bristol City Council sold its struggling energy company Bristol Energy to Scottish power firm Together Energy and Cheney was forced to apologise maintaining that the original idea remained a good one and that it was an problem inherited from the previous mayor and cabinet, whereas detractors argued that the council had lost millions of pounds of tax payers' money.