Perry’s people: the Tory canvassing group in New Addington last weekend was 16 people – 12 of whom are ‘on the payroll’, as councillors or election candidates. Activist numbers have declined for Labour and Tories, impacting the campaign

Have you been underwhelmed by the Croydon local election camapigns so far? ANDREW FISHER, pictured left, certainly has

How are the campaigns going in Croydon?

“What campaigns?” you might ask.

Walking around my local neighbourhood (a knot of 20 roads or so), I have only seen two posters in windows, and we are two weeks away from election day.  For those who care, one was for Labour and one was for Reform – though that poster highlighted Laila Cunningham, who is not on any ballot papers in Croydon in 2026.

Four years ago, at the last local elections, there were four posters that I counted along my road alone.

Have the people of Croydon lost faith in politics? Given the state of the council and politics nationally, that would be understandable. Such frustration, or apathy, could result in lower turnout, and so could mean an even more unpredictable outcome on May 7.

But if voters are turning off politics, what are the political parties doing to convince us?

In my own ward, an historically safe Labour area, the only door-to-door canvassing has been from Labour, and the only hand-delivered leaflets have come from Labour and the Conservatives.

Banner wars: Reform Ltd has had little in the way of Croydon-related campaign material, beyond this billboard at Fiveways – a sign, perhaps, of their approach to local government?

The “surge” of support that we have been told to expect from the Greens and Reform has not resulted in any personal contact from these parties for me. A direct mail from Reform doesn’t mention their council candidates or their mayoral candidate (because they weren’t chosen in time – reflecting the shambolic nature of Farage’s private company). This is despite Labour, Conservatives, Reform, Greens, Liberal Democrats and the Taking the Initiative Party all standing a full slate of candidates in my ward.

Are more historically competitive seats getting more attention? I asked half a dozen friends in other parts of Croydon. Only one said anyone had knocked on their door about the elections.

Membership of the Labour and Conservative parties has been depleted of late – nationally and locally, too. That could be a reason for less canvasser contact, but Reform and the Greens have both claimed increases in membership. They just don’t seem to be prioritising Croydon, despite the disaffection with the main two parties.

The truth is that both have other priorities in south London. The Greens are putting maximum effort into Labour-held councils in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, while Reform is targeting the Tory strongholds of Bromley and Bexley.

Perhaps Croydon is the poisoned chalice no one really wants to win? A deeply indebted basketcase council that is being run by government-appointed Commissioners, rather than the directly elected Mayor or councillors. It’s not the most attractive prize, is it?

A new MRP poll for YouGov published this week predicts that Croydon is a finely poised between Labour (24%) and Conservatives (23%), but with the Greens not far behind (19%. It predicts Reform finishing a distant fifth (10%) behind the Liberal Democrats (17%). As Inside Croydon has reported today, it could all come down to fewer than 100 votes for the mayoralty.

Despite national politics becoming a multi-party affair, Croydon does seem to remain dominated by Labour and Conservatives – with the Greens and LibDems targeting only a few wards (though perhaps a few more than before).

That means the mayoral contest looks likely to be a battle between Labour’s Rowenna Davis and Conservative incumbent Jason Perry. Davis has a full manifesto and some dubious TikTok videos. Perry has issued no manifesto to date, and he has refused to be interviewed by Inside Croydon – unlike his three main rivals.

Perry’s record: almost every household in Croydon is now expected to pay more than £2,000 per year in Council Tax after four years of Jason Perry as Mayor

With fewer members and less money to spend on campaigning, both Labour and Tories have leaned in on social media. Those residents unfortunate enough to find themselves on Croydon South MP Chris Philp’s mailing list have been receiving two or three emails a week making the case for voting for Perry.

And the Mayor himself has been very active on X/Twitter and Facebook – though he has been getting increasingly snarky with anyone who dares question the veracity of some of his statements. Evidently, it is not just me or Inside Croydon who he doesn’t like questioning him.

There are still two weeks to go, but a profound lack of enthusiasm pervades, which will only be made worse by the various scandals – local and national – that are hitting Labour and Reform especially.

This week it was announced that four local Labour figures will face court on May 19 for their role in attempting to rig the vote in Croydon East in 2023. The four include a former Croydon Labour councillor. Given that the Crown Prosecution Service had the case file last September, I understand that Croydon Labour is furious that the news of the charges was leaked now, designed to damage their election campaign.

Labour is not the only party hit by controversies, locally or nationally.

For Reform, there have been calls for one of their Croydon candidates to stand down after it was revealed he published covid conspiracies alleging the pandemic was “a staged event” orchestrated by the Pentagon in the United States. Reform has yet to disown the candidate and it is unclear whether his policies include a free tin foil hat to all constituents.

Nationally, Reform’s deputy leader and Dubai-resident Richard Tice continues to face allegations in Sunday Times that he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 in tax, which he then “donated” to Farage’s party.

The state of politics is a tragedy.

Democracy is precious and who we elect to govern us, locally and nationally, really does matter. So even if it’s for the least-worst option, please use your vote on May 7. Just consider your options, and the candidates’ records, carefully first.

Putting yourself forward for election is also a decent thing to be commended – especially if you’re prepared to be held to account for your decisions.

So I want to thank mayoral candidates Rowenna Davis, Richard Howard and Peter Underwood for submitting themselves to scrutiny.

To me it’s disrespectful to their electorate when candidates refuse to be held to account or take part in hustings or the kind of Digital Debate which Inside Croydon is recording tonight.

• According to Andrew Fisher, Mayor Jason Perry ‘fucked the finances instead of fixing them’
• Croydon’s failed Mayor refused to give a pre-election interview to Inside Croydon, where he would have faced 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
• Our Andrew Fisher Interview with Peter Underwood is now available by clicking here and paying a subscription to Inside Croydon’s Patreon site
  

• From 2015 to 2019, Andrew Fisher was the Labour Party’s Director of Policy under Jeremy Corbyn
• Fisher is also the author of The Failed Experiment – and how to build an economy that works, and now writes columns for InsideCroydon, the i newspaper and is a regular pundit on BBC and Sky News programmes
  

Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:

• The Mayor’s record in office has worse delivery than Royal Mail
• Perry has stabilised council finances in state of perpetual crisis
• Reform backs policy that could see children killed on our roads

• Click here for more by Andrew Fisher

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