Which of these banners do you consider to provide the most honest messaging?
There’s been a significant response to Inside Croydon’s report before the weekend of the politically-biased banner that’s gone up in Purley town centre, paid for with public money, using a public building, blatantly supporting Tory candidate Jason Perry, and breaking electoral law.
Here’s your chance to express your opinion.
1
Porkie Pie Perry’s Purley Pool poster? All paid for with your money…
2
The purdah pool sign, dreamt up by Croydon fake histories guy Tim Longhurst
Or there’s this…
3
Fixed it for you: a statement of the facts, as suggested by Major Richard Howard
When he saw the banner that the council has put up outside Purley Leisure Centre, Richard Howard, the former Army Major who is running for election as Croydon Mayor for the Liberal Democrats, told Inside Croydon this: “This banner is a blatant misuse of public money for political purposes, and residents will rightly be furious.
Question of integrity: Major Richard Howard
“At a time when Croydon is borrowing hundreds of millions just to stay afloat, the Mayor has chosen to spend tax-payers’ money promoting himself with a message that is, at best, a half-truth. The reality is simple: Purley Leisure Centre remains closed, despite clear promises that it would be reopened.
“This is not neutral information for residents — it is political spin, dressed up as a council regeneration message, and paid for by the public.
“Croydon deserves honesty, transparency, and proper stewardship of its finances. Instead, we are getting propaganda.
“If the Mayor wants to campaign for re-election, he should do it using his own party’s resources — not residents’ money.”
Read more:Labour’s Town Hall leader files complaint over Perry’s spending
Read more: Tory council loses £20m over Coulsdon collapsed property deal
Read more: Planning application for Westfield scheme stalled to mid-2026
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
- Andrew Fisher has also interviewed Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Howard and he will be questioning the Green Party’s Peter Underwood very soon
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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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How much did that sign cost us taxpayers? Who commissioned it?
Feel free to submit the FoI, Arf. And don’t forget to ask for all correspondence in respect of the banner’s commissioning, wording and approval.
Quite dreadful that he has even hi-jacked Easter, using ‘Croydon’ purple. And as if the electioneering leaflet we were sent with our council tax demands were not enough for he who is so desperate to be voted back in! Appalling! Shall I also mention the LTN fiasco?
I think we have our own little ‘Trump’, egotistical and stupid. Let’s get rid of him for good on May 7th.
The BBC are doing election profiles of the London boroughs which today (Easter Sunday) is about Croydon. The elections “expert”, Prof. Tony Travers of LSE, thinks that Piss-Poor might get back in as mayor on 7th May……………..I hope he is wrong !
It was hardly a fully throated PPP will win statement but more of a possibility.
This is what he said
“It could well be that the Conservative mayor, by bringing together the centre-right vote, holds on, but the council looks as if it will split with four or five parties winning seats.”
What PPP needs to win is to stop some of his 2022 voters jumping ship to reform or just not voting at all.
In 2022 he won the first round by just over 2k votes but didn’t cross the threshold.
Thee narrower 589 margin was after preferences were allocated but this year the election will be run using FPTP.
What ought to be of some concern about the vacuous “analysis” offered by the BBC and Prof Travers is that they suggest that Croydon is NOC – no overall control – while discussing the fact that since 2022 it has been under the control of an elected executive Mayor. Travers and the BBC do not appear to be using NOC as some kind of ironic commentary on the complete lack of control over the council finances demonstrated by Perry.
In a mayoral system, the number of councillors is mostly irrelevant, as Perry has demonstrated over the past four years.
Travers’ musings, based on national polling, are entirely worthless when considering how Croydon is likely to vote, as we have tried to demonstrate in two recent articles on this website regarding the 2026 local elections.
In May 2022, Boris Johnson was a significantly unpopular Prime Minister and Labour led in the national opinion polls with 36%, with the Tories on 35%. Yet Tory Perry won in Croydon.
In Croydon, Labour polled at 6.7% below their party average in London. Travers and the BBC fail to mention that. That was the “Newman effect”.
In 2022, there was also an independent candidate, Andrew Pelling, a former Conservative MP and former Labour councillor, who took 7% of the first-round vote share (mind you, more than 1,000 people voted for Winston McKenzie, too…). That won’t be the case on May 7. Again, this has not been considered by Prof Travers.
So, for a more considered and better-informed analysis of how things might yet play out in a four- or five-way split election next month, we suggest you return to these pieces:
https://insidecroydon.com/2026/03/25/43-days-to-go-and-desperation-is-appearing-in-election-leaflets/
and
https://insidecroydon.com/2026/03/06/red-v-blue-at-town-hall-elections-could-suffer-a-green-wash/
And we don’t receive a penny from the licence fee…
I predict a Tory win: either P³ or the Blue Labour candidate or the Farage appointee who tried to become the Conservative MP for Chesterfield