“SEATS are only lent to politicians by the people of a particular area. It’s been withdrawn from me and lent to somebody else.”
That’s the verdict of Wokingham Labour group leader Andy Croy, who lost his Bulmershe and Whitegates seat to the Conservatives in the 2021 Wokingham local elections.
It was a close contest: Mr Croy polled 1,443 votes, while the winner, Shahid Younis, received 1,489 – just 46 votes.
Will he be back? “Let’s see what happens in the future,” he said.
Overall, it had been a disappointing set of results for Wokingham Labour, failing to gain target seats in Norreys or make inroads elsewhere.
READ MORE: All the results from Wokingham’s local elections
“I’m desperately disappointed for activists,” he said.
“They work very hard, they put a lot of effort into the campaigns. I’m also a little bit saddened that the size of the group has come down so there will be less opposition on the council. It will be more of a one-party sort of shop if you like.”
And while the party will has not had a good election this year, Mr Croy said they would be back.
“We will regroup, we’ll have a look at the numbers. I lost by 46 votes, in Norreys it was 235. So in those two areas in particular there is a lot of potential for us to bounce back.
“But that will take hard work. It always takes hard work.”
