Columnist ANDREW FISHER, in his monthly podcast, sits down with the Green Party’s mayoral candidate for the latest in our series of in-depth interviews with the candidates at next month’s Town Hall elections
One of the candidates for Croydon Mayor has already told Inside Croydon that, if elected, he will abolish the £210,000 role of council chief executive.
And now, in our latest podcast with the leading candidates for Mayor in Town Hall elections on May 7, the Green Party’s Peter Underwood tells Andrew Fisher that, if he is elected, he’d work to abolish the role of directly elected Mayor itself.
This month’s Andrew Fisher Interview talks at length with Peter Underwood, the veteran environmentalist and Green Party activist, who believes that the momentum behind his party from new leader Zack Polanski, following the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election, will help to propel him and his party closer to elected office in Croydon than ever before.
“I’d say it wouldn’t be a shock,” Underwood says.
“Historically, at local elections, the Green Party have polled third behind Labour and Conservative in Croydon for the last few elections at council level.
“I’m meeting lots of people who are deciding to vote Green this time. When people are actually hearing about us, there’s a lot of people moving over to the Greens.”
The Andrew Fisher Interviews have already featured Rowenna Davis, the Labour Party candidate, and Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Howard.
In his mayoral interview, Underwood says: “People are ready for change. People are clearly fed up of the old parties… People are ready for a different approach to politics.
“And so I think that’s why people are now looking at the Greens as a serious alternative, that actually this is a way to make things better.”
And what does Underwood see as a future for the role of Mayor, for which he is eeking election next month?
Underwood says that if elected, he would “lay the groundwork” for a change in the borough’s governance system. As the law stands, Croydon can only hold a public vote on the council’s governance system 10 years after the last one, which in 2021 voted to bring in a directly-elected mayor which saw Conservative Jason Perry elected as Mayor in 2022.
“For me, the mayoral system is … bad for democracy. It’s putting all the power in one person’s hands,” Underwood says.
“My aim would be to lay the groundwork… so that we do everything that’s possible to put that choice back to the people of Croydon.”
- The Andrew Fisher Interview is premium content exclusively for paying subscribers to Inside Croydon.
- Later this month, Inside Croydon will be holding a Digital Debate with the leading candidates to become Croydon Mayor, who will be answering questions put to them by our website’s readers.
Jason Perry, Croydon’s failed Mayor, 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 our interview with the LibDems’ Richard Howard by clicking here
For more information on where to vote on May 7 and who is standing for election, use our widget here:
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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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Please translate “back to the people “ , which people, a minority but dedicated activist base perhaps, or what?
God help us if we get the Greens
God help us if we DON’T get the Greens!
Underwood the ‘veteran environmentalist’ – I’d vote for him. But the bonkers, ‘populist’, changes at the top – which Underwood thinks will propel him into power – clearly worry everyone. Are we supposed to take all the Polanski quotes seriously? Prostitution, leaving NATO, chatting to tyrants like Putin, legalising drugs, … it seems Polanski’s making it up as he goes along. I’d like to see Underwood’s consistent environmentalism as the template for success at the polls, not the anything-for-a-headline comments we’re getting used to
Don’t believe what you read in the Daily Mail / Express / Telegraph
Nor in Socialist Worker
The Sadvertiser has more readers than SW…
Nor in the Beano, Peter.
Just for the record, all the latest Green policies are on their website. That’s my source, and of course Inside Croydon. Non, je ne regrette rien
I struggle to believe the random stuff Polanski says, regardless of the medium. Almost no one reads the papers you list – we all get our info from trustworthy social media like Inside Croydon
Oh I don’t think it’s ‘random stuff’ Chris. Zack is really the only hope that all us decent people have to defeat the racists and bigots that make up Reform. My father served in the RAF in WW2 to help defeat fascism and I think he must be turning in his grave to see it coming back in the shape of Reform.
My dad served, flew, with the RAF in WWII and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have voted for the new-look Green and the non-socialist version of today’s Labour Party
Oh dear Chris, you really should take the advice I gave you a while ago, to go away and do something useful. We don’t want to hear your half arsed and stupid posts which completely misrepresent Zack Polanski and appear to be taken from far right rags like the Daily Heil. Your boy Farage was given another spanking in Kent and Deform are just a laughing stock! I know it’s disappointing for you, but c’est la vie, mate.
Is it any wonder that Farage complains about people not speaking English any more?
C’est la bloody vie, indeed!
We’ll have none of that foreign chitter chatter on the comment pages of Inside Croydon, thank you very much, Mr Tanner. Just stick to good, old fashioned Anglo-Saxon, like “That’s Life”, as memorably sung by Frank Sinatra.
My only other French phrase is Je Suis un(e) rock star which I sometimes used falsely and unsuccessfully as a chat up line, back in the day..