EXCLUSIVE: It’s not just Chancellor Rachel Reeves who struggles to get her CV right, as SANDRA STEAD, our in-house number-cruncher, uncovers a fifth case of an elected representative in Croydon failing to keep proper records in their register of interest
Sidetracked: Waddon councillor Simon Fox continues to declare to the public that he is a shop assistant, and not working for a Tory MP
This website has uncovered a fifth instance of undeclared business interests or income by elected councillors or Mayor Jason Perry.
This latest case is potentially the most serious, since it involves a councillor who has submitted a false declaration.
Two years after he joined the staff of Croydon South MP Chris Philp, Waddon’s Tory councillor Simon Fox still lists his employer as the House of Fraser. Working for Philp might be embarrassing (every time the MP appears on television, for instance), but it can’t be that bad that Fox feels compelled to break the law and the council code of conduct, can it?
Perhaps worse, Fox is the Town Hall Conservative group’s deputy whip. It is actually his job to ensure that his Tory colleagues maintain proper and accurate records. Yet he appears incapable of filling in a pretty basic form properly, and honestly, himself.
Given that his boss (that’s Chris Philp, not the House of Fraser) is the Conservatives’ shadow Home Secretary, with responsibility for policies on law and order, having someone working in his office who has submitted an obviously false public declaration might be considered a sackable offence.
Fox was elected to the council in 2022, the only Conservative councillor in the three-seat Waddon ward. Last year, he was the Tories’ sacrificial candidate for Croydon West in the General Election, where he put up a pretty feeble effort, winning just 16% of the vote as Labour’s Sarah Jones enjoyed a 14,000 majority.
Throughout that entire election campaign, Fox’s public declaration as a councillor on his Croydon Council register of interest was false, and therefore potentially misleading to voters.
Staff register: the House of Commons records show that Fox has been a staffer for Croydon South MP Chris Philp since November 2022
From official House of Commons records, it appears that Fox joined Chris Philp’s parliamentary staff in November 2022.
According to official Croydon Council records, Fox last updated his declaration of interests on November 13, 2024 – two years since he began working for Philp.
Whatever it was he was updating last November, it certainly wasn’t the first entry on the published declarations: “Name of Employer or Body”. Because that reads “House of Fraser”.
The leap from shop assistant to MP’s assistant might seem a huge one, but it ought not to have taken Councillor Fox more than two years to update his register.
Silent: shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has a law-breaker working in his office
And unlike previous instances where Inside Croydon has highlighted councillors who have failed to keep their register up-to-date, Fox’s entry is blatantly a false one – a potentially serious offence under local authority rules.
Not that anyone is likely to do anything about it. Inside Croydon asked the council official who is supposed to ensure councillors obey the law, the ever-useless Non-Monitoring Officer Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense (£115,000 per year salary), what action he intended to take. There’s been no reply.
We also asked Councillor Fox to explain the error. Nuffink.
We asked the shadow Home Secretary whether he was going to do a full broadcast media round condemning this outbreak of administrative incompetence by his staff (or worse). No response.
So we can only assume that the rules are there for the public, and Council Tax-payers, to abide by, while those in power give themselves a free pass whenever they need to.
All councillors, and Croydon’s elected Mayor, are required under Section 30 of the Localism Act 2011 to keep their register of interests up to date.
The council’s Code of Conduct also requires openness, transparency and honesty of all Croydon staff and its elected members.
Slow to register: Cllr Fox updated his register of interests in November, but kept his employer listed as House of Fraser
Previously, we have exposed how Croydon’s Tory Mayor Jason Perry has never included in his official register of interests a payment of more than £10,000 he received last year from the local government organisation London Councils, to supplement his £84,000 Town Hall salary.
And before that, Inside Croydon investigations exposed three Croydon councillors who have broken the Town Hall’s Code of Conduct by failing to update their register of interests promptly.
Last month, we reported how Labour councillor Louis Carserides had managed to change jobs twice without ever getting round to updating his legally-required register of interests.
In December, we reported how Conservative council cabinet member Scott Roche had not updated his record for two years, leaving it providing false and misleading information.
Carserides and Roche both managed to update their personal LinkedIn profiles long before they got around to amending their official council register of interest. But unlike the council record, LinkedIn is not a legal requirement.
No disciplinary action appears to have been taken by Croydon Council in any of the previous cases.
Unlike his Town Hall colleagues, Fox hasn’t bothered to update his LinkedIn profile.
Workplace issues: Simon Fox works at the House of Commons, not the House of Fraser
On the business social network, Fox, a former pupil at London Oratory – where he may have shared a classroom with Euan or Nicky Blair, the sons of Prime Minister Tony Blair – still describes himself as an assistant store manager.
He started working for House of Fraser in 2018, having previously worked for Marks and Sparks for four years as “Retail Manager Menswear, Lingerie, Beauty”.
Fox’s own description of his career makes no mention of his election as a Croydon councillor, but does say this: “Experienced retail manager with a demonstrated history of working in the retail industry. Skilled in KPI implementation, business planning, retail, store management and stock control. Strong operations professional with a BA(Hons) focused in Fashion History and Theory from Central St Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London.”
Which sounds like the perfect fit for working in a constituency MP’s office in Westminster.
He just might need to brush up on his personal admin a tad…
Read more: Perry’s ‘nice little earner’ – Tory Mayor’s undeclared £10,000
Read more: Very interesting: councillors often slow to update their registers
Read more: Planning councillor failed to declare his new job for 8 months
Read more: #PennReport wanted police probe into possible misconduct
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