Election time: Rowenna Davis addressing the audience at Ruskin House’s Cedar Hall last night, at an event organised by the local trades union council
KEN TOWL was at last night’s Ruskin House election debate, so that you didn’t need to be
The great red-green face-off at Ruskin House last night answered some burning questions, such as who will Your Party support? And, what will the candidates say to get that support? And what would the candidates be wearing?
There were quite a few members of Your Party in the audience. There were also quite a few members of the Socialist Party. They were the same people. Conveniently, they all announced themselves as dual members. The Socialist Party is the group that used to practise entryism in the Labour Party. They now practise it less discreetly in Your Party.
The event’s guests were positioned on a small stage to the side of the room. Peter Underwood, of the Green Party, in a green shirt, and Rowenna Davis of the Labour Party in a… green dress.
They were asked about their plans to maintain council services. Actually, the audience members didn’t so much ask as lecture. At least three of them referred to the Militant Liverpool Council which rebelled and refused to return a balanced budget back in 1985. They were not living entirely in the past. They also asked what the candidates were going to do about the bin strike in Birmingham.
All our yesterdays: it was 1985 all over again at Ruskin House, with questions about Liverpool council in 1985 and someone selling copies of Socialist Worker
Rowenna Davis is no Derek Hatton. She was not going to set an illegal budget. She was at once firm in her assertion that Council Tax would have to rise by 4.99% but also keen to disassociate herself from an unpopular Labour government.
She took credit for the latest partial bail-out from national government “It was me, working with the Labour government that got that funding reformed,” she said, but also sought to distance herself from that same national government. “Keir Starmer is not on the ballot!”
Peter Underwood is no Derek Hatton. He doesn’t even want to be Mayor. He appeared to suggest that one of his key aims was to dismantle the mayoralty as soon as he had attained it. Gauging his audience well, Underwood described the mayoralty as “capitalist and aristocratic”.
Underwood was going to make cuts, not to services but to the council itself, and not to the people who actually provide the services but to the overpaid executives at the top. “You don’t get better people by paying them more,” he said. “You get greedier people.”
This went down well, of course, but it wasn’t enough red meat for some of the audience.
Not enough red meat: greened-up Rowenna Davis and Peter Underwood were competing for the votes of Your Party members and activists
A questioner was miffed that neither candidate had signed the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition petition that calls for a total write-off of council debt. They gave a five-minute speech to this effect.
He was followed by another questioner who gave a five-minute speech about the need to write off the debt before Croydon became Gotham City. Davis committed to continuing to lobby Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. “Who do you want in that room negotiating for Croydon?” Davis asked. It was a good question. In fact, Davis was better at asking questions than most of the people on the floor.
Underwood was in favour of writing off the council’s debts. “Who do we owe it to?” he asked, rhetorically. Turns out we owe it to national government, so they could write it off.
They could. But would they?
Like Davis, Underwood could face reality. “I won’t promise not to raise Council Tax,” he said, but he would ensure there was more help “for those at the bottom end”.
There was good news for trees, too. A question about trees drew a lot of applause from the the 70-strong audience. Both candidates were able to speak warmly about trees. There was a consensus on trees.
A question about Gaza also failed to divide the candidates. “What is happening in Palestine is a genocide,” said Davis, starkly. Keir Starmer was clearly not on the ballot paper.
Davis spelt it out – a directly elected mayor was blessed with more independence than a mere MP. She wanted, she said, to work not just for a better Croydon, but a better Labour Party.
There was division, however, over councillors’ expenses, Underwood expressing disgust at a recent vote by councillors to raise their own allowances, Davis defending their right to maintain their allowances against inflation.
Blue moments: not a Bob Dylan song
Her suggestion that the Green councillors had lobbied to raise one of their own allowances was met by “We did not do that!” from behind me. I turned around to find the Green councillor in question. They were not happy.
I asked for the details later. Turns out the Greens had asked for parity with other parties over their one scrutiny committee role, which for some arcane historical reasons paid less. Five years since the referendum to move to the mayoral system of governance, council officials have still to finish work to bring the council constitution up to date. So Davis’s dismissal of the Greens was sort of true and not true at the same time.
It was about this time that Gary, who had previously been in charge of the microphones until the chair had wrestled his mic away from him during a brief incident that looked like turning into a real physical fight between 60-something men, got to ask his Midlands-based question about the Brummie bin strike.
Another questioner – who seemed to understand the brief of the questioner is to ask questions – simply asked, “Do you know the difference between a Zionist and a Jew?”
The question was so curt it sounded like the set-up for a very bad-taste joke. Both of the candidates knew the answer.
While Underwood got applause for saying the mayoral salary was too high – “I will be cutting my own salary” – Davis was confronted with her history as the author of a political book, Tangled Up In Blue (not to be confused with the Dylan song of almost exactly the same name). “You wrote a book about Blue Labour. You are more further right than the current Labour government!”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “Some elements of Blue Labour are anathema to me”, and she asserted that she had criticised New Labour for being too obsessively pro-market.
Time was getting on. At a little after 9pm, the candidates were asked, “Do you want five minutes to sum up?”
“Or less!” they answered in yet another show of cross-party unison. Underwood finished by rallying his supporters to vote for him to dump the mayoral system and replace it with one founded in consultation with the people of Croydon. Davis asserted that she was “best-placed to get investment into the centre… and I can beat Jason Perry.”
Mayor Jason Perry has refused to give a pre-election interview to Inside Croydon, where he would face questions about his record in office- Paid-up subscribers to this website can listen to The Andrew Fisher Interview with Labour’s Rowenna Davis by clicking here
- And you can listen to last week’s Andrew Fisher Interview with Liberal Democrat Richard Howard by clicking here
- Andrew Fisher will be interviewing the Green Party’s Peter Underwood over the next few weeks
- We still have an empty Zoom slot available for Mayor Perry, should he pluck up the courage to face some proper public scrutiny
Read more: Bookies make Labour’s Davis favourite to win Mayor election
Read more: ‘Red v Blue’ at Town Hall elections could suffer a Green-wash
Read more: Starmer shocker: could Gorton and Denton happen here?
Read more: Surrey Street market trader Joseph quits Labour in race row
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2026, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for an EIGHTH time in nine years, in Private Eye magazine’s annual round-up of civic cock-ups
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Unfortunately I was not able to attend the debate. I am pleased that the Labour candidate for mayor has agreed that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, this is in stark contrast to Keir Starmer and the majority of Labour MPs, including my own Labour MP, Natasha Irons. It is interesting that Madelaine Henson, who is standing to be elected as a Labour councillor, has, to the best of my knowledge, failed to sign the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s pledge for Palestine ,despite me emailing her on at least 2 occasions, she has not even given me the courtesy of a reply! I think this casts doubt on the mayoral candidate’s apparent support for Palestine, and I suspect it is just empty rhetoric.
For what it’s worth, David, she said it clearly with apparent conviction and without hesitation. I think that if she says it publicly, on the record, like that, then it is highly likely that that is what she believes.
Well, I think the voters of Croydon will have to make up their minds on whether they can trust a Labour politician to be honest about this issue and many others, but in my experience Labour will say anything if they think it will win them votes and then backtrack later.
Alternatively they might see through the PSCs attempts to turn these local elections into some bogus referendum on Palestine. To paraphrase Rowenna… Gaza is not on ballot
That is not the aim of the PSC. The aim is to get as many councillors as possible to sign the pledge for Palestine, and Gaza is on the ballot because council pension funds are investing in Israel and the Mayor has jurisdiction over that.
However frustrating it might be for politicians the voters often decide what the issues are. It must seem likely that the conflicts in the Middle East and the impact of the conflicts on the cost of living will impact upon voter choice.
As regards to the council pension fund this is not under the Mayor’s control. The legislation leaves the Fund under the council’s control and the Pension Committee is under the chairmanship of a Labour Party councillor.
Other foreign wars are available
🥱🥱🥱, weak, old man analysis across an even weaker Party Political debate….it’s wonder Reform allegiance is growing – like Trump (e.g. who I cannot abide), they still however, know how to enthuse the people and put on a show! Tick tick, IC – up your game across your boring reportage – and at a time when you seek to change hearts and minds across a critical election too ☺️
This was a local election debate not Last Night of the Proms, mate!