Peter Underwood, the Green Party’s Croydon mayoral candidate in 2022, is to be the Green candidate in 2026, too.
Campaigner: Peter Underwood is one of the more recognisable figures in Croydon politics
The Greens, who won their first two council seats in Croydon in 2022, made the announcement last night, leaving Labour as the last party in Croydon to yet pick their candidate for the mayoral election in May 2026.
Underwood is among the more recognisable figures in Croydon politics – though he has yet to win elected office. In 2022, Underwood was one of three Green candidates for the council in Fairfield ward, but he was the only one not to win a Town Hall seat. In the mayoral election, Underwood finished fifth, gaining 6.5% of first preference votes.
Last year, Underwood was a candidate at the General Election in Croydon East, a seat won by Labour’s Natasha Irons. Underwood was fourth, behind Nigel Farage’s limited company’s candidate, with 9.4% of the vote – prompting the Greens to claim that their vote “went up more than any other party in Croydon”.
Underwood has lived in Croydon for more than 20 years and is on the committee of his residents’ association and his local woodland friends’ group. He is a former chair of Croydon Friends of the Earth and was also a member of the Croydon Climate Crisis Commission.
In a statement issued by Croydon Greens, “Peter was chosen as our candidate for Mayor as he has a long track record of working as part of the community to make Croydon a better place to live. His professional experience also means Peter can get on with tackling the dysfunctional council and get it back on the road to serving the public.”
The Greens, and Underwood, campaigned against Croydon Council switching to a mayoral system because they distrust the concentration of powers with one person. “The last three years have provided plenty of evidence of why this dictatorship style of leader is not what we want,” they said.
And Underwood said: “I know people in Croydon have had enough of the Conservative and Labour parties, who have worked together to ruin our borough.
“We desperately need a change for the better and that’s what the Greens are offering.
Experienced candidate: Peter Underwood at a General Election hustings event last summer
“I believe we need to bring honesty back into politics. You deserve politicians you can trust. We all know the dreadful state Croydon is in, so I’m not going to make the sort of fake promises and false claims we’ve all heard before from other candidates.”
Underwood has made some election pledges, however, including seeking fair funding for Croydon and “to put pressure on the government to provide the money we need to keep the council running”.
He says he will cut the “money wasted on consultants, too many senior staff, and senior councillor allowances”, diverting the money saved into providing staff for front-line services. When Tory Mayor Jason Perry voted through his latest Council Tax increase recently, Labour then proposed a motion, supported by the Conservatives, to increase councillor allowances and the pay for senior council staff.
“I won’t just claim to be listening to residents, I will be actively involving residents in the decision-making process,” Underwood said.
“I don’t believe that one person has all the answers and so I will be working with our brilliant councillors Ria Patel and Esther Sutton, and the other fantastic Green candidates who will be standing for election all over Croydon, to make this truly a people’s campaign.
“I intend to be a Mayor who truly works with the people of Croydon and for the people of Croydon.”
The Conservatives have nominated Perry to run for a second term (though it has not been confirmed that his campaign slogan will be “I hiked your Council Tax by 27%”), while Rick Howard – third for the Liberal Democrats in 2022 – is expected to run for his party again.
Labour’s mayoral selection vote closes at noon today.
Croydon’s second mayoral election, alongside voting for 70 councillors across 28 wards, is due to be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
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So perennial candidate Underwood is back again for another shot. He is looking like the Lord Sutch of Croydon electoral politics and despite his undoubted principles has never got the imagination of the public. Isn’t it about time that the Greens went beyond principles and try and make some headway by finding a politician with a more popular touch. Esther Sutton undoubtedly has these and is a proven winner. Croydon desperately needs a Party to replace the entitled and complacent pair who have created the disasters that have been inflicted over the last two decades.
Esther Sutton runs a nice pub but why is she a proven winner? because she got 23 more votes than Peter in the last local elections? By that logic Ria Patel is their biggest winner because she got 12 more votes than Esther. If he had changed his name to Peter Aardvark then he would have been the biggest winner of all.
Always good to hear the sound of fourth place.
Is this the same Mr Underwood that wants to get rid of the post of Mayor?
Yes. The article says so.
Yes, and one of my promises is that if elected I will start the process of getting rid of the Mayor post as quickly as possible and move the Council to a much more sensible and democratic way of working.