WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports on the varied fortunes of local MPs and some with notorious connections to Croydon Town Hall in the appointments by the new Prime Minister
In step: Croydon West MP Sarah Jones (here with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley) has kept her minister’s job
There was no need for any vainglorious resignation letter from one of Croydon’s other Labour MPs as, unlike her erstwhile government colleague Steve Reed, Sarah Jones was confirmed to continue in her job as junior minister for police and crime at the Home Office.
But there was not such good news for other MPs with past connections to Croydon, and close connections to Lambeth and Morgan McSweeney.
Jones, an MP since 2017 who today represents Croydon West, says that she was given the news of her re-appointment to her government role in a phone call from Prime Minister Andy Burnham himself. The one-to-one calls to his entire ministerial team, and to some who declined jobs, was one of the reasons for this week’s reshuffle under the new MP for Makerfield taking so long.
“Delighted to be able to get on with the job as policing minister,” Jones posted on the Elon Musk hate platform late on Tuesday night.
“A huge honour working with extraordinary people. And a massive job of reform to continue.
“Tackling the epidemic of everyday crime, cutting knife crime and making our force fit to face the future,” Jones wrote.
PM hotline: how Sarah Jones got the news she was to remain as policing minister
Jones explained how she had received the news: “I had a call when I was in a local meeting in Croydon. I had to say, ‘Excuse me, this might be the Prime Minister’, and it was!”
Jones continues to work in a department where Shabana Mahmood is the Home Secretary.
It gave Jones the opportunity today to report the success of Labour’s neighbourhood policing policies and police recruitment drive, with a report published by Scotland Yard this morning.
“New stats show neighbourhood officer numbers have grown by 22% in just one year, helping cut crime and make communities safer,” Jones said. “And this number will continue to grow.
“Putting officers where the public wants them: on our streets fighting crime.
“Neighbourhood policing is back.”
There was not such good news for another MP with links to Croydon, though, as Imogen Walker was sacked from the Labour whips’ office.
Imbecillic: Morgan McSweeney (right) was behind giving Peter Mandelson the ambassador’s job
Inside Croydon’s loyal reader will recall that Walker is the former councillor in Lambeth who is married to Morgan McSweeney, the close colleague of Steve Reed at Labour Together.
McSweeney broke the law at Labour Together when he failed to declare £800,000-worth of donations. He later landed the plum job as Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff in Downing Street.
It was McSweeney who took the rap for the imbecillic decision to appoint deeply dodgy Peter Mandelson, the pal and defender of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, one of a series of bad judgements which foreshortened Starmer’s time as PM.
Walker is a former actress, whose best-known part was as Linda Lovelace in a docudrama about the porn star’s life.
Sacked: sometime actress and Croydon Council adviser Imogen Walker
In 2021, Walker was parachuted in to Croydon Town Hall by Labour Party chiefs to provide “strategic” media advice and crisis management to rookie council chief Hamida Ali, a move which saw the Croydon leader left badly exposed in a series of car crash TV interviews.
Ahead of the 2024 General Election, Walker was selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hamilton and Clyde Valley under particularly suspicious circumstances, with Anonyvoter managing to stack up members’ votes for her despite the absence of similar levels of support present at the selection meeting.
Once in Westminster, Walker enjoyed very rapid promotion for a newbie MP, first as PPS to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, then to a job in the whips’ office.
“No one trusted the whips’ office because of her,” a Westminster insider told Inside Croydon.
Walker thus joins her husband’s bestie, Steve Reed, on the Labour back benches, for how long only time will tell.
Read more: ‘No records’ after council hired Starmer ally to advise leader
Read more: McSweeney’s new No10 job puts ‘Croydon Clique’ in charge
More Reed: Reed group fined for slow declaration of £800,000 donations
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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