Croydon South MP Chris Philp pledges to reopen Purley Pool and bring more police to town center

Chris Philp has retained his Croydon South seat despite widespread losses for the UK Conservatives. In keeping the constituency, Mr Philp pledged to reopen Purley Pool and bring more police officers to the town centre.

The MP for Croydon South was first elected in the solidly Tory seat in 2015. He won the seat with 19,757 votes and a majority of 2,313 – a significant drop from his majority at the previous election, but beating poll predictions predicting the chance of a Labor wins.

When asked why he managed to hold on to his seat despite his party’s losses across the country, he told MyLondon: “It’s because we worked really hard as a team for the local community and actually solved things and I think the public. I appreciate this. Everyone thought we were going to lose this.”

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He added: “There are probably lessons for us nationally. When we make promises we have to make sure we keep them, that’s what we did in Croydon and I think we can learn from that nationally.”

On his party’s performance outside Croydon South, Philp told LDRS: “Voters are clearly unhappy about a number of things, we have to respect that, we have to consider it and we have to respond.”

On his priorities for Croydon South, Philp said he would work with Croydon Mayor Jason Perry to deliver the long-awaited Purley Pool. He also pledged to support a new banking center in Coulsdon and encourage the police to send more officers to Croydon Town Centre.

Philp’s main challenger was Labour’s Ben Taylor, who narrowly missed out on the election results. He congratulated Philp on his victory after the count. Taylor polled 17,444 votes, 1,202 fewer than Labor received in the 2019 election.

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