The newly-elected London Assembly representative for Croydon and Sutton slammed Croydon Council’s bankruptcy.
Neil Garratt won the seat with a 10% majority, retaining the Conservative safe seat.
Croydon Council was declared bankrupt towards the end of last year but is now out of bankruptcy after the largest government bailout of its kind.
Garratt said: “It’s such a disaster.
“Honestly the sense of anger I think that people have in Croydon about that is just palpable including people who have been voting Labour for a long time.
“It is so frustrating for me that a borough should be thriving.
“In addition to the problems everywhere else has trying to get back on their feet after COVID, Croydon has additional weight round its neck from the problems the Labour council have created.”
Garratt stressed the need for extra police while also pledging to tackle the crimes that were not making headlines, like burglary and catalytic converter theft and discussed the issue of transport within Sutton.
Garrett added: “The life blood of any city really is transport and I think Sutton in particular is poor in relation to other London boroughs so I’m going to make sure we are getting some investment there.
“I’m incredibly grateful and incredibly humbled. I hope to live up to that increased expectation.”
Runner-up, Labour candidate Patsy Cummings, refused to comment and was ushered away by press officers amid turmoil within the party.
In the constituency, Labour’s vote share decreased by one percentage point, whereas all the other parties saw a rise.
Lib Dem candidate Claire Bonham, who came third with 14.6% of the vote, told us her view.
Bonham said: “We’re really encouraged by some of the results we’ve had especially in the south west side of London.
“Lib Dems always do really well in local elections our whole mandate is around working really hard at a local level and supporting out local councils so we’re really hoping for a good showing next year.”
The Lib Dem’s position in third marks a difference to majority of GLA constituencies where the party came in fourth.
Green candidate Peter Underwood, who came in fourth, stressed the importance of the Green vote.
Underwood said: “A vote for the Greens makes a massive difference.
“The show of support for the Greens puts pressure on the other parties to show that they’ve got to up their game and they’ve got to start adopting greener policies because that’s what people want.”
The Green party have done particularly well throughout London and the UK in the election, but in Croydon and Sutton unlike elsewhere did not overtake the Lib Dems.
The constituency has been held by the Conservatives since the GLA was formed in 2000.
The collapse of the UKIP vote led to vote increases across all the major parties except Labour in the constituency.
