INSIDE SUTTON: With Nigel Farage’s limited company picking up council seats across the country, BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK reports on how they might impact the latest by-election in Carshalton South and Clockhouse
Limited company: might Farridge sway the outcome of a Sutton council by-election, where Reform’s candidate is a ‘top fan’ of a Tommy Robinson associate?
With the far-right Reform UK riding high in the opinion polls, and Nigel Farage’s mug a constant feature of news bulletins and spouting his anti-immigrant rhetoric in a televised party political broadcast this week, the party has opted to select a “top fan” of a Tommy Robinson associate as their candidate in the upcoming Carshalton South and Clockhouse council by-election.
The full list of nominations for the by-election, to be held on May 22, was released by Sutton Council yesterday and comprises six candidates.
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Amy Haldane, who after failing to turn up for a single meeting of full council since May 2024 (a period which included a spell of maternity leave), decided that she wanted to spend more time with her family.
Limited company: Arlene Dearlove is director of companies with assets of £1m
The by-election ought to be a two-way tussle between the LibDems and the Tories, but after their experience in last year’s General Election, local Conservatives are wary that Reform’s cheap populism and disinformation, in a low-turnout ballot, could cost them enough votes that might lose them a seat which might otherwise cause a shift in the way the council is run.
The candidate put up by Reform is Arlene Dearlove. She lives in the ward and runs three care companies for children and young people, describing them as “not-for-profit”. The implication being that they are some kind of charity, when they are not. Dearlove is actually herself a director of three limited companies which between them, according to their latest accounts lodged at Companies House, have assets of more than £1million.
This is the first time Dearlove, 59, has stood for public office, and her candidacy has been given the backing of the right-wing Croydon Constitutionalists. The Constitutionalists are committed, Brexit-loving, self-proclaimed “Leavers”, who are much-liked by some Croydon Tories.
A leading figure among Croydon Constit-utionalists is Michael Swadling, who has been a keen re-Tweeter of barely disguised racist rants from Breitbart News, and a supporter of the notorious Islamophobe Douglas Murray.
Dearlove’s own social media suggests there’s much to be wary about her, too. Her Facebook profile has a badge as a “top fan” of right-wing commentator Liam Tuffs, the Islamophobe “comic” and an associate of proven criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – such fandom might rest a little uneasily with Dearlove, since elsewhere, she claims to want to reduce crime rates.
Rapid replacement: the FibDems had Lisa Webster lined up as a candidate before Amy Haldane resigned
Might Dearlove lure enough Conservative voters in Carshalton South and Clockhouse to put their X against her name on their May 22 ballot paper to hand the seat to Sutton’s LibDems?
With a very slim majority on Sutton Council, and their two MP-councillors potentially absent from council committee meetings on national business, the LibDems are aware that the loss of even a single council seat would reduce their majority to just one between now and the 2026 local elections.
The LibDems are defending the seat which had a nominal majority of just 73 votes over the fourth-placed candidate in 2022.
Opposition councillors were rightly sceptical of the timing of this by-election announcement – coming just hours after the LibDems were declared the winners of the Sutton Central council by-election on April 10. Party activists were out delivering leaflets, including pictures of their already selected candidate, that same afternoon. The LibDems were waiting on Sutton Central result before flicking the switch for the Carshalton South and Clockhouse by-election.
Carshalton South and Clockhouse has three council seats and has been a “split ward” for several years. The result in the May 2022 local elections saw Conservatives Moira Butt and Tim Crowley top the poll, with LibDem Haldane third. Labour was knocked into last place by the single Green Party candidate.
Given the amount of doorstepping and deliveries already under way, both the Conservatives and LibDems think they can win this seat this time around.
The LibDem candidate is Lisa Webster, a “former teacher” who is a member of the Good Shepherd church. Webster, 46, is a trustee and director of the Refugee and Migrant Network Sutton, where she describes herself as an accountant, rather than a teacher. She was company secretary at Carshalton estate agent Silverman Black from 2012 until 2019.
Tory activist: Chris Da Cruz is on a mission to reduce the LibDems majority on Sutton Council
The Conservative candidate is long-standing community activist Chris Da Cruz, a resident in Carshalton-on-the-Hill for 31 years. He is a committee member on the residents’ association and helps organise many local events including the Christmas Yulefest. He says his priorities include action on speeding motorists and fly-tipping, and expanding social and technology-based initiatives for older residents.
John Keys, a former Sutton councillor for the LibDems and, briefly, Labour, makes a return as a candidate, standing for Labour. As a carer, Wallington resident Keys has been a longstanding campaigner for St Helier Hospital. First elected in Wallington North in 1998, Keys switched to Beddington North in 2002. He defected to Labour in 2013 over the incinerator proposals in Beddington North. Despite his experience, Labour’s and Key’s prospects are slim.
The Green candidate is Peter Friel, who also stood in the recent Sutton Central by-election, where he won an underwhelming 4.9% of the votes. Ashley Dickenson, the perennial Christian Peoples Alliance candidate, who also stood in Sutton Central, completes the candidate list.
While Kemi BadEnoch’s Tories are in the doldrums in national polling, with help from far-right Reform, this by-election is one the LibDems should hold.
But strange things happen in politics, especially in the borough of Sutton…
Read more: School governor using social media to spread race hate
Read more: Opposition livid as cynical LibDems prompt second by-election
Read more: ‘Suez-gate’: LibDems withhold video ahead of ward by-election
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