EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Early departure: Cllr Mike Bonello
Labour councillor Mike Bonello has resigned from Croydon Council.
Bonello is a councillor for Woodside ward, but also works as a social worker, and it is understood that he has taken the decision to stand down because of the pressure of work in his “day job”. Bonello had already stood down from a Town Hall shadow cabinet role (and extra allowances) in May last year for a similar reason.
Local sources confirm that Bonello’s resignation is only as a councillor; he is not leaving the Labour Party.
It means that Croydon Labour, which has had two candidate selection processes suspended due to dodgy online voting processes and other complaints, will now have to find yet another candidate to stand in the usually safe ward of Woodside in a by-election.
When Bonello was first elected to Croydon Council, he polled almost double the number of votes of his closest rival, the Conservative candidate, and 10 times as many votes as the Greens and LibDems.
Voting zone: residents in Woodside ward will have a by-election soon
The ward by-election to fill the vacancy created could be held on May 2, the same day as the London elections, to save the cash-strapped council a few bob. But it may have to be staged sooner if the council’s returning officer – Katherine “Slow Count” Kerswell – receives two applications from residents of the borough.
That might prove tricky for Labour: they’d then only have 35 days in which to organise selection of their candidate. It’s been nearly three years since the last London elections, and they still haven’t managed to pick a candidate for the Croydon and Sutton seat on the London Assembly…
Bonello has been a Croydon councillor only since 2021, when he himself was elected at a by-election caused by the resignation of Tony Newman, the Labour council leader who crashed the borough’s finances. Newman remains under “administrative suspension” from the Labour Party pending the conclusion of investigations into his part in Croydon’s bankruptcy.
Stuart King, the current leader of the Labour group at Croydon Town Hall, did not respond when approached for comment regarding Bonello’s resignation.
Inside Croydon offered Bonello the opportunity to comment on his mid-term decision, but he had not responded by the time of publication.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
