Last night it was announced that Cllr Hamida Ali would be replacing her ward colleague Cllr Tony Newman as Leader of the Labour Group of Councillors on Croydon Council.
Cllr Ali has been a long-term and vocal supporter of Cllr Newman, serving in his Cabinet since 2014 and voting in favour of every single one of Labour’s failing policy decisions during that time.
Cllr Newman resigned from his position as Labour Leader of the Council following a No Confidence vote brought forward by Conservative Councillors. While the vote was lost, with Cllr Ali and every Labour Councillor backing their then Leader, Cllr Newman nevertheless resigned a few days later.
The resignation comes as Labour’s disastrous policies have brought Croydon to the verge of bankruptcy, with over £1.5 billion in debt having been accrued – making Croydon Council one of the most financially delinquent of any of the 343 Local Authorities in the UK.
With £15,000 of debt racked up every hour since 2014, and the Council taking the unnecessary step of sacking social workers and street cleaners to pay for it, it was up to local Conservatives to demand Cllr Newman resigned from his position.
Notably, Cllr Ali has vigorously and publicly backed Cllr Newman’s policies from day one.
Cllr Jason Perry, Leader of the Croydon Conservative Councillors, comments:
“Cllr Ali is simply a Newman acolyte that has sat back and supported his terrible decisions over the last six years.
The financial crisis that we face in Croydon today is entirely the creation of the Labour Party and their choices. Choices that have been aided and abetted by their Cabinet Colleagues, one of whom has been Cllr Ali. Therefore nothing will change.
While Cllr Newman can no longer directly inflict any further damage on our borough, he will still be able to influence the new Leader, who is also his ward colleague.
Cllr Ali will continue to defend Newman’s record, which of course is her own record, as she did at the recent vote of no confidence and seek to deflect the issues and blame others.
Labour will blame the Government for everything and take absolutely no responsibility for their actions.
Cllr Ali must take ownership of the part she has played in taking Croydon to the brink of bankruptcy. She must also completely overhaul her Cabinet, by removing as a minimum Cllrs. Butler and Scott who have wreaked such havoc on our borough. If she doesn’t then residents will rightly be very concerned as to whether the future of Croydon is any safer in her hands than in Tony Newman’s.”
Croydon Council is in desperate need of competent leadership to sort out the terrible mess that Labour have created. To that end, Cllr Perry has written to Cllr Ali with four immediate actions that the Conservative Councillors believe she should take. You can read that letter here.
