Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Labour Party ends suspension of ex-Croydon Council leader Tony Newman, despite past controversies linked to financial mismanagement and governance failures.
The two men who oversaw what at the time was the largest financial collapse in English local government history have been permitted to rejoin their political party after more than four years.
Tony Newman, the controversial and discredited former leader of Croydon Council, has been lifted from the Labour Party’s suspension.
The equivalent “administrative suspension” that had been imposed on Simon Hall, the Fieldway ward councillor and Newman’s cabinet member for finance throughout the six years preceding Croydon’s financial collapse in 2020, since February 2021 has also been lifted, according to Inside Croydon.
According to sources close to the Labour Party,
“You can’t keep someone suspended forever.”
When approached to deny that Newman and Hall’s suspensions had been lifted, a Labour Party spokesperson said:
“We are unable to comment on individual membership or disciplinary matters.”
For over four years, the disciplinary procedure had been drawn out, with a significant portion of that time occurring under David Evans’ tenure as the Labour Party’s general secretary.
With Tony Bliar’s former aide, now Lord Evans of Penge, having managed Croydon Labour’s 2014 local election campaign, which put Newman and Hall in charge of the Town Hall finances, Evans, Newman, and Hall had been close campaign partners.
Ten years later, Evans was assisting Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer in gaining control of Westminster.
According to Labour sources today, a panel of the party’s all-powerful National Executive Committee decided to lift the suspensions. Newman and Hall were informed of the decision last week.
Given how long it took and when the bans ended, Labour is sure to face criticism from both inside and outside the party for how it handled the Newman and Hall disciplinary matters.
“They’ve shown all the comic timing of a very unfunny comedian,”
one party source in Croydon said today.
“This could have been done at any time since 2023, really. But oh no… Labour decides to drop the suspensions just as the party in Croydon has selected its ‘fresh break’ candidate, Rowenna Davis, to be their candidate for Mayor in 2026.”
Due to his involvement in the financial collapse of Croydon Council, which sparked intense criticism and demands for accountability, Newman had been suspended since 2021. Prior to this recent declaration announcing its termination, there was less public discussion regarding its status despite the suspension.
Newman’s suspension was lifted in the midst of continuing criticism of Labour’s management of Croydon’s governance problems, with some local critics contending that important players have evaded complete public accountability.
When the Met Police decided nearly a year ago to stop looking into the events that led to what was at the time the largest financial collapse in the history of local authorities in England, and Croydon Council, led by Tory Mayor Jason Perry, acknowledged that there were no legal options for the two, Newman and Hall’s fates appeared certain eighteen months ago.
The financial collapse that took place under Newman, Hall, and Negrini’s leadership has left the council and the citizens of Croydon still reeling.
Hundreds of employees were let go, and a number of resident services were discontinued, while council taxes skyrocketed to all-time highs.
For a long time, Newman was a contentious figure in both Labour and larger Town Hall circles.
He oversaw a dysfunctional council with numerous charges of racism and bullying, as proven by a number of independent investigations and Reports in the Public Interest.
And that was before taking into account the disasters of Brick by Brick, the Fairfield Halls scandal, and the shady acquisition of the Croydon Park Hotel, as well as Newman’s decision to chair the meeting that gave his chief executive, Jo Negrini, a £437,000 “golden farewell” due to a breakdown in their working relationship.
Five months after Newman and Hall’s resignations as cabinet members and council leaders, the party was suspended.
Prior to his resignation in October 2020, Newman led the Labour group at the Town Hall for 15 years. He served as a councillor for Croydon from 1994 to 2021. It is believed that Newman and his partner, Louise Szpera, who has been a longtime employee of MP Steve Reed OBE’s Westminster office, still reside in Woodside.
Hall, who works as an accountant, and his family recently relocated to northeastern England, where Rob Elliott, his partner, is reportedly trying to get elected as a Labour candidate for the local election.
When Hall resigned as a cabinet member in October 2020, he acknowledged his pride in his accomplishments.
The resignations of Hall and Newman came just days before Grant Thornton, the council’s auditors, released a Report in the Public Interest that was extremely scathing of the way the council and its finances had been run during their tenure.
It was discovered that Newman had approved a £100 million municipal loan to buy the Croydon Park Hotel and other business properties without following the correct procedures at Town Hall.
Newman and “… an inner circle of a small number of cabinet members who have been very controlling in their management of the council and its finances” were named in another report, a fast assessment that the government commissioned.
According to the fast assessment, “members of Newman’s cabinet instructed council officials to rewrite some of their reports, in effect to disguise the council’s mounting financial problems.”
“Decisions made by the council were made in good faith and were made collectively by the entire cabinet,” Newman and Hall insisted in a 2022 statement issued through a gaudy West End public relations firm, despite these findings and the long-suppressed recommendations of the council-commissioned Penn Report, which this website first published.
Since there is no proof of our crime, it has not been discovered.
It was an odd kind of denial from Newman that relied on his assertion that there was “no evidence” of wrong-doing.
“We acted at all times with integrity and honesty,” Newman said at the time.
A poll of Inside Croydon readers found 97% disagreed with Newman’s claim.
Newman preferred to cast himself as a massive incompetent, rather than a crook:
“Things can go wrong without there being any wrongdoing,”
he said.
Additionally, the removal of Newman and Hall’s suspension gave local Conservatives a huge political weapon to use against Rowenna Davis, Croydon Labour’s new hope.
“That Labour would allow Tony Newman and Simon Hall back into membership just gives the lie to Croydon Labour being ‘under new management’ – their group leader is a Newman cabinet member and their mayoral candidate is a Newman campaigner and supporter,” Jason Cummings, the council’s current finance cabinet member, told Inside Croydon after learning of the news.
“Nothing has changed with Croydon Labour.”
The campaign for the local election in 2026 is well under way.
What impact does this decision have on Croydon Council’s current leadership?
Labour’s attempts to portray a departure from previous poor management are in direct opposition to the return of Newman, who played a key role in the council’s financial collapse in 2020.
Opponents, such as local Conservative council members, contend that this action undermines Labour’s credibility in the run-up to the 2026 mayoral election, in which Rowenna Davis is the candidate positioned as a “fresh break,” by signaling continuity rather than change.
The ruling gives opposing parties—especially the Conservatives—more justification to point to Newman’s return as proof that Croydon Labour hasn’t changed its culture or leadership enough. According to Jason Cummings, the current finance cabinet member for Croydon, Newman’s return “gives the lie to Croydon Labour being ‘under new management’.”
The timing—following Labour’s selection of a new mayoral candidate—may deepen party splits and divert attention from attempts to restore public confidence.