Geoffrey Richard Gollop, OBE[4][5] (born 23 February 1955)[5] is a British Conservative politician. He was a councilloronBristol City Council from 2001 to 2024 and deputy mayor of Bristol from 2012-16. He stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for the first directly elected mayor of Bristol in 2012.[6]
Gollop was born at Bristol Maternity Hospital and has lived his entire life in Bristol, having been brought up in Henbury, where he attended Blaise Primary School.[5] He then attended Clifton College, and after that went up to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Thereafter he trained in accounting, became a Chartered Accountant and worked in accounting firms, before being made redundant and setting up his own business.[7] Geoff Gollop & Co merged with accounting firm Milsted Langdon in 2013, with Gollop joining the latter as a director.[8]
Gollop was inspired to enter local politics by the issue of secondary education[9] and by his father Philip, a former Councillor for the Henbury ward,[10].
In 2011-12, Gollop served in the ceremonial role of lord mayor of Bristol,[12] and in 2012-13 he served as the deputy lord mayor.
In November 2011, Gollop was the victim of an arson attack on his car, for which the Informal Anarchist Federation claimed responsibility.[13]
On 7 August 2012, he was selected to be the Conservative candidate for the first directly elected mayor of Bristol, having defeated former three-time lord mayor and Bristol City Council's Conservative group leader, Peter Abraham, and former councillor, Barbara Lewis. Receiving support from the mayor of London, Boris Johnson,[14] Gollop campaigned on transport, education, inequality and Council culture.[15] His specific policies included a freeze or reduction in Council Tax, lower fares on public transport, and business rates relief for independent shops.[16] In the election on 15 November, Gollop lost to independent candidate George Ferguson, coming third, with 9.13% of the first-preference votes, behind Ferguson and the Labour Party candidate Marvin Rees. Gollop attributed the result to "a real disillusionment with party politics".[17]
After the election, Mayor Ferguson assembled a "rainbow cabinet" of councillors from several parties, appointing Gollop as his deputy mayor and cabinet member with responsibility for finance and corporate services.[18][19]
