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Earthquake election but Croydon only felt some small tremors

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TV and radio politics pundit ANDREW FISHER, right, looks at Croydon’s local election results in the context of the seismic elections that took place across Britain

Across England, Wales and Scotland, the 2026 elections delivered a political earthquake that rocked the two main parties, Labour and Conservative, which both suffered substantial losses.

The Labour Party lost control of Wales for the first time in nearly 100 years, lost seats in the Scottish Parliament, and saw a wipeout of 1,500 councillors across England.

It was just as bad for the Conservatives, who slumped to fifth place in Scotland, fourth place in Wales and lost 563 councillors in England, leaving them in fourth place in England, too.

But in Croydon, Tory Mayor Jason Perry was re-elected as Executive Mayor, and Labour remains the largest party, although government-appointed Commissioners remain in charge of the serially inept council.

That apparent continuity masks more change beneath the surface: the Greens quadrupled their tally of councillors to eight, the Liberal Democrats doubled their representation to two and Reform won two council seats in New Addington South.

In 2022, Labour lost the mayoralty by 2,000 votes on first preferences, and by fewer than 600 once second preferences votes were redistributed. In 2026, Labour’s Rowenna Davis lost by just 1,113 on first preferences, and if it wasn’t for the Green surge, she may have won.

Fifth to third: Peter Underwood of the Greens tripled his vote from 2022

If second preference votes were still allowed, I suspect it would be Davis, not Perry, who was now our Executive Mayor, but the Labour government has neglected to restore that democratic reform quickly enough.

The mayoral race saw the Greens’ Peter Underwood leaping from fifth place to third, and polling a respectable 16.6% of the vote, while Reform – with a living candidate selected only weeks before – came fourth with 12.4%.

Those changes might have been greater had both the Greens and Reform put more resources into Croydon – but both parties had what they saw as more viable targets in south London.

The Greens’ focus on Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark paid dividends. The Greens comfortably won the Lewisham mayoralty and a big majority of councillors, while gaining 22 seats in Southwark to become the second largest party and deprive Labour of control of another council.

In neighbouring Lambeth, the Greens gained 28 seats to displace the Labour administration and become the largest party on the council. This is bad news for Steve Reed, the housing and local government secretary, whose constituency straddles Croydon and Lambeth, and whose seat will be a key Green target at the next General Election.

For Reform, the south London boroughs of Bexley and Bromley were their targets – but the Conservatives comfortably clung on, and Reform is only the third biggest party in Bexley and joint third (with the LibDems) in Bromley, behind the Conservatives and Labour in both.

New faces: Gill Hickson, LibDem gain in Old Coulsdon

It was a disappointing night for the Liberal Democrats, with Richard Howard falling to fifth in the Croydon mayoral race, and the Greens (rather than the LibDems) taking the other two seats in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, where Claire Bonham held on to the seat she gained in 2022. They did, however, pick up a seat from the Tories in Old Coulsdon

Despite losing seats to the Greens in Fairfield, South Norwood, Woodside and Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Labour also won two seats from the Conservatives, in New Addington North and in Waddon.

Looking to the future, the Greens are now in second place in many wards in the north of the borough (Reed’s parliamentary constituency), including Norbury and Pollards Hill (where a Green candidate was just 56 votes short of denying Labour’s John Wentworth a return to the council) and in Bensham Manor, where Keir Starmer’s niece was elected as a Labour councillor, but fewer than 200 votes ahead of the fourth-placed Green.

Family dynasties were also on show on the Conservative side with the election of Jack Barwell, the son of the former Croydon Central MP Gavin, in Selsdon Vale and Forestdale.

But the Starmer family dynasty may take a loss in Downing Street – with more than 40 MPs now publicly calling on the Prime Minister to go following this morning vacuous speech.

Starmer loyalist and Labour Together bedfellow Reed is not one of those to sign up to the calls for a change of party leader. Nor are Croydon East MP Natasha Iron and Sarah Jones, a junior minister and MP for Croydon West. Reed argued that Labour should not be “doomscrolling” through leaders like the Conservatives.

Starmer supporter: Labour MP Steve Reed

Reed also said on national television, “We did worse under Blair then won a General Election”. This is laughable, and also untrue.

Labour under Blair never got wiped out in Wales or in Labour strongholds from Hackney to Sunderland.

Croydon’s other Labour MPs have so far remained tight-lipped on the Labour leader(sinking)ship. Irons did graciously congratulate Mayor Jason Perry on his re-election, while Jones posted, “Looking like Labour will be the largest party on Croydon Council.” That is true, but largely irrelevant in a mayoral system.

Polling day has seen things remain the same at Croydon Council post-election (Tory Mayor, Labour largest councillor group). But there could be big changes to come in Westminster.

Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:

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