THE TOSS-CARS 2026, Part 2: Inside Croydon reveals the borough’s hardest-working councillors. PLUS: Which Town Hall figure managed just 12 reports to the council’s smartphone app all year?
Reigning champion: Cllr Karen Jewitt
The Labour Party goes in to Thursday’s local elections with the hardest-working councillor in the borough not on the ballot paper.
Karen Jewitt, who has been a councillor in Croydon for 32 years, was one of the six sitting councillors blocked from seeking selection to stand for election by the Labour Party.
With Croydon Labour still under special measures since bankrupting the borough in 2020, Labour’s National Executive Committee supervised the panelling of wannabe council candidates for the party, and together with London region officials, they also oversaw the long-listing and short-listing of ward selections.
In: Ellie Sandover, niece of Keir Starmer, was approved by Labour’s NEC
It was under this entirely opaque and non-democratic system that Ellie Sandover, the 20-something niece of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, was deemed a good enough candidate to stand for election in a safe Labour ward, as officials presented Labour members in three-seat Bensham Manor ward with a fait accompli, with only three candidates left on the shortlist, as Inside Croydon reported last year.
And it was the same nameless Labour officials who determined that Karen Jewitt was not suitable for selection in her home ward of Thornton Heath, where she has been councillor since 2018, having previously represented Woodside. Continue reading
ANDREW FISHER has interviewed three of the main candidates standing for election as Croydon Mayor. Only Tory Jason Perry refused our invitations. What has Perry got to hide? These are the questions Perry has left unanswered
Underneath the car parks of the furniture stores, there’s a much older story. This area was once the heart of Croydon’s heavy industry, home to massive gas works and power stations.
As the Town Hall election campaign enters its final days, the simperingly pathetic ‘give me another chance’ messaging from failed Mayor Jason Perry has got increasingly desperate. And deceitful.
The elections on May 7 seem likely to return a Liberal Democrat council – one strengthened by seats won from the Tories by Reform, who are fielding some candidates who don’t even bother disguising their racist views and support for the likes of fascist agitator Tommy Robinson.
For Croydon residents whose vision is impaired, next week’s local elections will represent a breakthrough, as the council is providing special devices in polling stations which will allow them to cast their votes independently and in secret, just like their sighted neighbours and friends are able to do.
SEVEN DAYS TO GO: You probably don’t want to read ‘It’s too close to call’ again, but judging by the latest, London-wide polling figures just published, the race to be Croydon Mayor is tighter than ever.
HOOK’S SHOT: The county side’s pre-season high expectations fell flat on a succession of flat wickets in the opening month, writes MARCUS HOOK
Perry didn’t ‘fix the finances’. He’s increased debt to £1.7bn
At the last local elections in 2022, Jason Perry, the Conservative candidate for Executive Mayor of Croydon, made a pledge to “fix the finances”.
Feeling the heat: Croydon’s £86,000 per year Tory Mayor Jason Perry
Now, in his flyer to voters seeking re-election in 2026, he purports to show that he has reduced the debt since taking charge of Croydon Council.
He says, and I quote, “Since 2021, we have made £230million in savings.”
He counts the savings that pre-date his taking control of council spending in May 2022.
The majority of those savings came from one-off receipts from the sale of property owned by the council. These are savings that can only be matched by selling off more council assets in the future.
Does this mean that he has stabilised Croydon’s debt as he claims? Continue reading →
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