Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Croydon’s Labour Party members have endorsed Cllr Stuart King’s deputy, Louisa Davis, with 82% backing her as their 2026 mayoral candidate in a key vote.
Today marked the official start of the 2026 Croydon Mayoral race as Labour finally got around to announcing their candidate.
To everyone’s astonishment, with the possible exception of Manju Shahul-Hameed, Rowenna Davis was announced today as Labour’s nominee for the Croydon Mayorship in May of next year.
There have been more delays this week in London Labour’s long-running selection process for party members in the borough to select their candidate for the 2026 elections. There was a 48-hour wait for postal votes to arrive after the online voting ended on Monday.
The Labour regional organizers (we use the term in the broadest sense imaginable) had to add postal voting to their process at the last minute since they appeared to have completely ignored the possibility of digital exclusion of people without smartphones, emails, or internet connections.
The plume of white smoke eventually rose today shortly after midday. All voting numbers were concealed in keeping with Labour’s now-traditional practice of counting votes using the dubious Anonyvoter technology.
However, Croydon knows that Davis received 82% of the vote out of 46% of the electorate.
“We are happy to announce that the Labour candidate for Mayor of Croydon will be Rowenna Davis. Thank you to everyone who participated in the ballot,” an email from a nameless Labour apparatchik announced.”
Tonight, when Davis is anticipated at a full council meeting, positioned across the Town Hall Chamber from Conservative Mayor Jason Perry, the fun and games could truly get underway.
When she reminded him that he had voted for the budgets of discredited Labour council leader Tony Newman three times, Perry’s sidekick, Jason Cummings, lost his shit and yelled across the Chamber at Davis during the last full council meeting in February.
“I am thrilled to be standing as Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Croydon and so grateful to Labour Party members for their support,”
Davis said in a statement released by London Labour today.
“Croydon needs change. I love my home, but we’re being let down. Our borough is the ‘fly-tipping capital of England’, our streets and neighbourhoods feel neglected, and too many people feel unsafe, while our town centre is a depressing shadow of the delight it used to be. That changes with me – I’ll put people first.
I’m proud to have won the trust of members with such a clear mandate for change, and now I want to earn the trust of the public.
Together, we’ll make Croydon a place to be proud of.”
Since 2022, Davis has served as a councilor for the Waddon ward.
Manju Shahul-Hameed, a councillor for Broad Green and a member of the council administration that so embarrassingly destroyed the borough’s finances in 2020, was her sole rival in the selection process.
Davis is an experienced political operator, despite having only been a councillor in Croydon for three years.
She was a councillor in Southwark and a (losing) parliamentary candidate in Southampton ten years prior. Tangled Up In Blue, which she wrote, is characterized as “an examination of the rise of the Blue Labour movement.”
The lack of talent in Croydon’s Tories gave Perry the opportunity to run for a second term late last year, and he has been doing a good job of campaigning ever since.
In addition to the Greens’ choice of Peter Underwood, who was the same candidate three years prior, the LibDems will field Rick Howard, their 2022 candidate.
On Thursday, May 7, 2026, Croydon will hold its local elections, where voters will choose 70 council members from 28 wards and an executive mayor.
What are the main challenges facing Croydon according to Davis?
Social isolation is a contributing factor to poor health, particularly among senior citizens. High rates of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, affect about 47,978 adults at any one time.
Childhood obesity, with children aged 4-5 being especially at risk.
Homelessness is the intricate connection between housing, health, and social exclusion; a large number of people are homeless or lonely.
Over 2,000 households are in temporary housing, and the number of applications for homelessness has climbed by 46%.
The difficulty of offering vulnerable groups and rough sleepers suitable long-term housing options and assistance. Health and social care services that are disjointed and frequently challenging to use, and that are structured on individual illnesses rather than comprehensive requirements.