Croydon Labour Criticised for ‘Disgraceful’ Campaigning During Wandle Park Opening

Community event becomes a Labour rally with balloons and placards

The Wandle Park community celebration on Saturday was hijacked by Labour activists who were trying to win votes. Whilst local people gathered in the sunshine to watch the orchestra and eat ice cream, a band of Labour activists stormed into the park waving placards, wearing red rosettes and giving out red balloons to residents.

The publicity stunt was condemned by local Conservative Councillors as ‘disgraceful’. Cabinet member Vidhi Mohan tweeted, “Unfortunate that Andrew Pelling using the #WandleParkRevival for political campaigning for @CroydonLabour. This is a community event.”

Cabinet member Michael Neal said, “Disgraceful that the Labour activists in Waddon played party politics at the opening of Wandle Park Revival distributing leaflets.”

Witnesses told The Croydon Gazette that some of the balloons had Andrew Pelling’s face printed on them. But his blog Inside Croydon hit back at the allegations, “If someone said that, then they must have been lying.”