Voters in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and our own borough – Tower Hamlets – were today, in addition to choosing from a selection of Councillors able to vote for a directed elected Mayor. 

However the borough of Croydon – for a long time London’s most populous borough – is a vast chunk of south London suburbs, and Croydon “proper” according to John Elledge is “almost like a miniature city in its own right, complete with skyscrapers and trams”. 

Many Croydonians have called for a directly elected Mayor for Croydon and in terms of Croydon as an electoral barometer – it might also be an interesting borough to have some on the day polling data from.

John Elledge in his “implausibly long and detailed borough by borough-by-borough guide” to the London Elections for the excellent Citymetric blog had the following to add: 

“Although historically safe Tory, the borough’s combination of leafy suburbs in the south and grittier, more inner city patches in the north has recently turned into a proper marginal. It’s also tended to run ahead of the nation, going Labour in 1994 and switching back to the Tories in 2006”.

Croydon has 39 Labour councillors to 30 Conservative. So while not an electoral “scalp” – if Labour does not do “well” in Croydon, the prospects for Labour in Boroughs they seek to “turn red” would look dimmer.

So we polled  members of the public in Croydon today -May 3rd using a large pool of landline and mobile telephone records for residents and found the following:

Adjusted for likelihood to vote, with undecided and refused voters removed:

Can I ask for which party will you vote/you voted in your Croydon borough council elections?

Labour 50%

Conservative 37%

Green 4%

Lib Dem 4%

UKIP 2%

Others 2%

Some boroughs, such as Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney, have directly elected mayors. Other boroughs do not have directly elected mayors.

To what extent would you support or oppose Croydon having its own directly elected mayor?

Support 55%

Oppose 15.5%

Neither 19%

Don’t know 11%

Do you think Sadiq Khan is doing a good job or a bad job as Mayor of London?

Good Job 50%

Bad Job 21%

Neither 18%

Don’t know 11%

Full data tables linked below:

Final tables, Croydon. Polling Day.

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