Jack Howes and Georgia Simcox
December 13 2019, 05.00
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Sarah Jones held her Croydon Central seat with a small majority, gaining 27,124 votes.
Conservative candidate Mario Creatura won 21,175 votes, Liberal Democrat’s Simon Sprague gained 3,532 votes, Green Party’s Esther Sutton got 1,215 votes, while The Brexit Party’s Peter Sonnex won 999 votes.
There was a 66.4% turnout, down 4.9% on the 2017 General Election.
Ms Jones said: “Tonight is a strong, incredible result here in Croydon Central but it’s also a very devastating night for Labour and for all the people who desperately needed a Labour government.
“The brilliant Labour MPs that we’ve lost and the brilliant Labour activists who have worked so hard and not managed to deliver the results.
“But now is not the right time to preach about why we lost.
“Here in Croydon we not only brought together parts of the party, we brought together the whole community which is diverse and is a reflection in many ways of the country as a whole.”
She added: “We fought an ambitious, vigorous campaign about issues way beyond Brexit and that spoke directly to the needs and the ambitions of the people of Croydon.
“I pledge to work hard to be visible, to keep campaigning and to keep my policies.”
Conservative candidate Mario Creatura said: “Time and time again people have said how fantastic they thought Croydon was, where it could be improved and all those ideas are not going to go anywhere and I’m going to be doing absolutely everything I can to make my hometown better.
“Sarah ran a very good campaign and I will always tip my hat to someone who is ultimately successful.
“My community chose to vote Labour in Croydon Central this time and hopefully they won’t next time.
“I know Sarah’s got a good heart and she will do everything she possibly can to fight for Croydon and that’s all you can ask of an MP.”
