18/04/2026
This article raises a fundamental question that Croydon voters deserve an answer to: who is actually in charge of Rowenna Davis's campaign?
If a mayoral candidate can be overruled on something as basic as their own manifesto, then it's clear the decisions aren't being made by them. So who is actually calling the shots?
And more importantly, if Rowenna Davis cannot control her own campaign, how could she possibly be trusted to run a council facing one of the worst financial crises in local government? We've seen what happens when leadership is weak or distracted. Croydon didn't end up effectively bankrupt by accident. It happened under Labour.
Now we're being asked to believe that things will be different. But this episode suggests the opposite: decisions being made behind closed doors, by unnamed figures, with the candidate acting as the public face rather than the decision-maker.
It raises the same uncomfortable question people have been asking nationally in Labour politics: are there powerful figures behind the scenes pursuing their own agenda, while voters are presented with a more acceptable front?
Croydon cannot afford a figurehead Mayor.
We need someone who is clearly in charge, accountable for their decisions, and capable of leading from the front - not someone who appears to be taking instructions from elsewhere.
Because if voters don't know who is really calling the shots now, they certainly won't once the election is over.
With Croydon’s Town Hall elections to be held one month today, one mayoral candidate has been ordered to censor her election brochure by party bosses, with MP Reed suspected of being behind m…
