ELECTION EXCLUSIVE: Less than 48 hours before he was due to be unveiled at the Fairfield Halls as his party’s pick to head their campaign in Croydon, Dan Milner-Tebbutt resigned. Political editor WALTER CRONXITE reveals his replacement, another Conservative defector to the party of grifters 

Just hours after this website published its report about Daniel Tebbutt switching roles at Croydon Reform, standing down as chair of the local party in order to take on a “new role”, than Dan Milner-Tebbutt (as he is now known following his recent marriage) announced on social media that he was resigning as the party’s candidate for Croydon Mayor.

Campaign in disarray: Nigel Farage’s party is on to its fourth mayoral candidate in barely a year

Reform’s grifter-in-chief Nigel Farage is expected in Croydon tomorrow, for a “walkabout” at Central Parade in New Addington from 3pm, before a £5-a-ticket “rally” at the council-owned arts centre, the Fairfield Halls.

There, Farage is to launch his party’s London local election campaign, and was also expected to reveal the identity of their Croydon mayoral candidate.

But with the party’s ratings in the polls slipping, and problems in finding people to stand as local election candidates, tomorrow Farage will arrive in a borough where Reform is in a state of disarray, its social media presence having been erased completely and around 10 of their selected council election candidates having quit, in addition to Milner-Tebbutt.

Reform Ltd in Croydon is now on to its fourth mayoral candidate in little more than a year, although the latest one does appear to have a pulse.

Inside Croydon can today reveal that Reform’s mayoral candidate will be Ben Flook. Provided, that is, he doesn’t die, resign in horror when confronted with racist Reform members, or simply shit himself when he sees his photo appear on Inside Croydon – the various fates that have befallen individuals who have previously been lined up as mayoral candidates by the far-right grifters.

Tory defect: Reform’s likely Croydon Mayor candidate Ben Flook

Farage’s populists are several months behind the other parties in revealing their lead candidate for the 2026 Croydon local elections. Even TTIP, the Taking the Piss Party, managed to name their mayoral candidate ahead of Reform.

Flook, from Purley, is another Tory to defect to Reform. He was the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Chesterfield at the 2024 General Election where he came second, beating the Reform candidate by barely 500 votes. Labour held the seat with a 10,000 majority.

Until last year, Flook worked as a history teacher at Wallington County Grammar School, while also being a part-time parliamentary advisor to Tory peer Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row (we have not made that name up).

Flook is understood to be close to ex-Tory, now-Reform MPs Robert “Honest Bob” Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell, the MP for Romford who is now suing the Conservative Party after officials locked him out of their local party HQ, Margaret Thatcher House (these are the people who aspire to be left in charge of our country, ffs).

And Flook already has some experience of standing in Croydon local elections. In 2014, when 18 years old and still attending Wilson’s School, he was a Conservative candidate in Norbury. A “paper candidate”, Flook attracted fewer than 1,000 votes and was not elected.

As recently as Monday, Reform in Croydon were still appealing for volunteers to stand as candidates – although not unreasonably, some might be put off by the party’s requirement for a £200 fee to be a local election candidate. Recent defections – in some cases back to their previous party, the Conservatives – and resignations will make having a full slate of 70 council candidates a tough ask for a party with a declining membership base in Croydon.

Prize bull-shitter Farage is unlikely to let the local party’s disarray show when he swans around New Addington tomorrow afternoon or grandstands on stage at the Fairfield Halls alongside Leila Cunningham, a Reform mayoral candidate who has been “revealed”, for the London elections in 2028.

Today, in an interview in the London Standard, Trump fanboy Farage was doing what he does best: talking down the country and the capital, without ever once acknowledging his own part in undermining Britain with the self-inflicted disaster that is Brexit.

Croydon is not among Reform’s target boroughs in London, where they are expected to win in Havering, Bexley, Bromley and Hillingdon.

“What should be the beacon of Britain is riddled with crime, potholes and struggling schools,” Farage told the Standard. Yet London’s education system is seen as better than most other regions. Indeed, candidate Flook’s old school, Wilson’s, a selective grammar in Wallington, has this year managed to get Oxbridge offers for 45 of its pupils – better than posh public school Dulwich College, where Farage practised his antisemitism against his Jewish classmates.

Farage called Croydon under Conservative Mayor Jason Perry “a complete basket case”, and referred to how the Town Hall still employed 21 senior staff on salaries of £100,000 or more, despite its huge levels of debt.

On his bike: Dan Milner-Tebbutt resigned as Reform’s Croydon mayoral candidate within hours of appearing on Inside Croydon

“Meanwhile, Council Tax bills continue to soar,” said the leader of a party which at last year’s local elections promised to cut Council Tax, but which at 12 local authorities around the country has increased Council Tax this year, mostly by the maximum allowed 5%.

Farage’s followers have been planning a day of campaigning tomorrow, preceded by “pre-purdah drinks” at a Croydon pub location that has not been revealed, tonight.

“This will be a great opportunity to connect with fellow members, hear final updates before the campaign enters its next phase, [and] meet Reform UK’s candidate for Mayor of Croydon,” said the email, from Tebbutt when he was still branch chair.

Tomorrow, they will have a street stall on Central Parade, New Addington, from 2.30pm, “joined by a VIP guest taking part in a walkabout from 3pm”. That means Farage.

“This is a key opportunity to show strength on the ground and meet one of Reform UK’s most influential individuals.

“We need a strong turnout, please join us if you can.”

Once that’s done, it’s all on to Nigel’s bus for the short drive into central Croydon and the Fairfield Halls circus.

They could have taken the tram but, of course, one of Reform Croydon’s leading lights, Peter Morgan, wants to make scrapping the tram network party policy…

Read more: Reform party official wants to scrap vital New Addington trams
Read more: Farage party picked a dead woman to run for Croydon Mayor
Read more: 43 days to go and desperation is appearing in election leaflets
Read more: Mayor Perry failed to stop Farage rally in council-owned venue

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