Inside Croydon

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reports on the fall-out from the latest round of patronage for Tony’s cronies

Tony Newman’s usual tactic of using public money patronage to keep the support of his Labour council colleagues appears to have been less than successful this time around, following Wednesday’s confirmation of the jobs for the boys (and gals) at the Town Hall.

Dropped: Robert Canning, with Callton Young (left) on the campaign trail. Neither have jobs in the new council administration

Newman, leader of Croydon Labour’s council group since 2005, was confirmed at that meeting as council leader for another four years with the support of cabinet and deputy cabinet appointees.

But as Newman doled out jobs to some of the 2018 new intake of councillors, several more established and experienced figures have been omitted, and there are already murmurs of discontent after being relegated to the back benches.

Former senior civil servant Robert Canning, a councillor in Waddon ward who had impressed during the previous term when working as a deputy cabinet member for Stuart Collins and Stuart King, rejected out of hand a demotion. Canning didn’t even wait for Newman to offer him formally the somewhat obscure and unnoticed role as chair of the General Purposes and Audit Committee as a sop. Continue reading →