Peter Underwood has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for the Croydon and Sutton super-constituency at next May’s London Assembly elections.

Capital choice: Peter Underwood is the Greens’ candidate in Croydon and Sutton next year

Underwood stood for the Green Party in last year’s Croydon Mayor contest, and has been a regular on the ballot paper in elections in and around the borough.

As the Greens’ candidate in the Selsdon Vale and Forestdale council by-election in November, Underwood relegated scandal-hit Croydon Labour into third place, representing his best recent election result, following on from the Greens getting two candidates elected on to Croydon Council in May 2022.

The 2024 London elections will see Underwood standing in Croydon and Sutton again, as he did in 2021 when he polled in fourth place, behind Neil “Father Jack” Garratt, the Tory candidate, Labour and the LibDems. That marked an improvement for the Greens on 2016 and 2012, when they had finished fifth in this bit of sarf London.

“It is an honour to be selected as the Green Party candidate for Croydon and Sutton at next year’s London elections,” Underwood said.

“If you vote for the same old parties, you will just get the same old politics. If you really want better, then you have to vote for better.

“The Green Party has shown that is now the real alternative to the old parties. Our fresh Green policies to look after people and planet are winning over more and more people. At the local elections earlier this year Greens won elections all over the country – beating the Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats. We aim to continue that progress at next year’s London elections.”

Fresh Greens: candidates (from left) Ria Patel, Zoë Garbett and Peter Underwood

The Conservatives, in re-selecting Father Jack, are the only other party to have nominated their candidate for the Croydon and Sutton super-constituency so far. The Tories have won Croydon and Sutton at every London election since 2000.

Underwood is part of the Green “slate” of candidates, with Zoë Garbett standing for Mayor of London and Croydon councillor Ria Patel on the party’s London-wide list of candidates which, in 2021, saw the Greens have three London Assembly Members elected as they outpolled the LibDems with 13per cent of the capital’s votes.

Underwood is an Oxford graduate who also holds a Masters in business administration and who, after many years as a senior Civil Servant has also worked in Westminster and the European Parliament.

He is currently business development manager for an environment conservation charity.

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