Andrew Pelling

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

British politician

title: "Andrew Pelling" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1959-births", "living-people", "alumni-of-new-college,-oxford", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "politics-of-the-london-borough-of-croydon", "conservative-members-of-the-london-assembly", "councillors-in-the-london-borough-of-croydon", "uk-mps-2005–2010", "presidents-of-the-oxford-university-conservative-association", "politicians-from-wolverhampton", "people-educated-at-trinity-school-of-john-whitgift", "liberal-democrats-(uk)-parliamentary-candidates", "labour-party-(uk)-councillors", "independent-members-of-the-house-of-commons-of-the-united-kingdom", "london-ams-2000–2004", "london-ams-2004–2008"] description: "British politician" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Pelling" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

FieldValue
nameAndrew Pelling
office
term_start6 May 2005
term_end12 April 2010
predecessorGeraint Davies
successorGavin Barwell
office2
term_start24 May 2000
term_end21 May 2008
predecessor2Constituency created
successor2Steve O'Connell
birth_date
birth_placeWolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
nationalityBritish
party{{plainlist
alma_materNew College, Oxford
::

| honorific-prefix = | name = Andrew Pelling | honorific-suffix = | image = | caption = | office = | parliament = | term_start = 6 May 2005 | term_end = 12 April 2010 | majority = | predecessor = Geraint Davies | successor = Gavin Barwell | office2 = | assembly2 = | term_start2 = 4 May 2000 | term_end2 = 1 May 2008 | majority2 = | predecessor2 = Constituency created | successor2 = Steve O'Connell | birth_date = | birth_place = Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = British | party = {{plainlist|

Andrew John Pelling (born 20 August 1959) is a British politician. He was Member of Parliament for Croydon Central from 2005 to 2010, first as a Conservative, then from 2007 as an independent. He contested the seat as an independent at the 2010 general election, but lost to his former party.

He was also a councillor in Croydon and a member of the London Assembly. He joined the Labour Party in February 2011 but was subsequently expelled from Labour in February 2022. In early 2024 he joined the Liberal Democrats, and stood unsuccessfully for the party in Croydon East at the 2024 general election.

Education and local government

Pelling and his family have lived in Croydon for six generations. He was educated at Trinity School, Croydon and then New College, Oxford, where he led the Oxford University Conservative Association. He was elected to the position of Librarian of the Oxford Union, a senior position, and ran for President several times without being elected, on one occasion losing to William Hague. Before becoming a full-time politician, Pelling was an international investment banker.

He was elected to Croydon Council in 1982 in Broad Green ward and later represented the ward of Heathfield. He served as Chair, first of the Education Committee in the early 1990s and subsequently became Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group when they lost control of the Council in 1994. From 2002 until 2005, he was the leader of the Conservative group in Croydon and stepped down from the Council in 2006 after 24 years.

Pelling was first elected to the London Assembly in 2000, and retained his seat in 2004. He was a member of the London Development Agency and chaired the GLA budget committee.

Political career

At the 2005 general election, Pelling won the Croydon Central parliamentary seat by 75 votes, beating the incumbent, Labour's Geraint Davies.

On 28 May 2007 Pelling was one of 18 Conservative MPs to vote in favour of an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act proposed by David Maclean, which would have seen the Houses of Parliament and MPs exempted from the disclosure requirements of the Act. However, he was 625th out of 646 MPs in the expenses league table and did not take a second-home allowance.

On 18 September 2007 Pelling was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife Lucy after the Metropolitan Police received a complaint. He was released on bail later that night after being questioned. The police later announced that no charges were to be made against Pelling nor would the Crown Prosecution Service prosecute. The allegations caused the Conservatives to remove the whip, suspending him from the party.

In December 2007, Pelling announced that he would not seek re-election for Parliament nor the London Assembly, but he subsequently decided to contest the Croydon Central seat as an independent, saying "I am very much up for representing Croydon for another term, there are lots of important issues to speak about." He said that as an independent, he had the political freedom to best serve Croydon.

He has been quoted in 2010 as saying "Independence has allowed me to do politics differently, enabling me to put Croydon residents ahead of party politics and to lobby effectively for Croydon by being non-partisan. I do not have to obey party bosses and so can speak out for Croydon and on issues like immigration, an EU membership referendum and foolish overseas wars that the parties prefer not to speak of."

According to Pelling's own website, "The Leader of London's Green Party once called me 'the acceptable face of Conservatism'."

As an independent Pelling lost his seat to the Conservatives at the 2010 general election obtaining 6.5% of the vote in Croydon Central. He remained active in political circles, and attended the 2010 Labour Party Conference in Manchester. By 2011 Pelling had joined the Labour Party. In June 2013 it was announced Pelling would contest the marginal seat of Waddon in the upcoming Croydon Council elections. He was elected to Croydon Council on 22 May 2014.

In February 2022, Andrew Pelling was expelled from the Labour Party for leaks to the press, campaigning for a directly-elected mayor, and voting against the party on council tax cuts.

In the fourth episode of the Al Jazeera documentary "The Labour Files" it was revealed that much of the evidence used to prove Andrew Pelling had been leaking to the press was obtained through hacking the blog "Inside Croydon" with the knowledge of Labour staff.

In March 2024, Pelling switched party allegiance to the Liberal Democrats. Describing the Conservatives as out of touch with their 'one nation' roots, angered by their culture wars and believing that Britain was best suited inside Europe. Pelling was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the new seat of Croydon East for the 2024 general election.

Personal life

Pelling was married to Sanae for 16 years, and the couple had three children. In 2006, Pelling married Lucy. They have since separated after allegations of assault.

References

References

  1. Press Association. (30 March 2010). "Tories dealt blow as MP Andrew Pelling announces he will stand as independent". The Guardian.
  2. (22 February 2022). "Croydon councillor expelled from Labour after demanding leader resign over Fairfield Halls". My London.
  3. (19 September 2007). "MP quizzed over 'assault on wife'". BBC News.
  4. (20 October 2007). "MP will not face assault charges". BBC News.
  5. (4 December 2007). "MP to stand down at next election". BBC News.
  6. Whalley, Kirsty. (30 March 2010). "Croydon MP Andrew Pelling to fight general election as an independent". Croydon Guardian.
  7. "Andrew – Putting Croydon first". Andrew Pelling.
  8. (22 February 2011). "Former Croydon Tory MP joins the Labour party". Croydon Guardian.
  9. [http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Andrew-Pelling-stand-Labour-Waddon/story-19261113-detail/story.html Andrew Pelling to stand for Labour in Waddon] {{Webarchive. link. (29 October 2013 ''Croydon Advertiser'', 12 June 2013; Retrieved 27 October 2013)
  10. O'Connor, Tara. (22 February 2022). "Croydon councillor expelled after demanding leader resign over Fairfield Halls".
  11. "The Labour Files".
  12. (11 April 2024). "Veteran Croydon politician stands for third political party in the borough".
  13. Pelling, Andrew. (28 March 2024). "Putting Croydon First: the reasons I am now a Liberal Democrat".
  14. (September 2007). "It's over, says wife of MP in 'assault' claim". Telegraph Media Group.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1959-birthsliving-peoplealumni-of-new-college,-oxfordconservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituenciespolitics-of-the-london-borough-of-croydonconservative-members-of-the-london-assemblycouncillors-in-the-london-borough-of-croydonuk-mps-2005–2010presidents-of-the-oxford-university-conservative-associationpoliticians-from-wolverhamptonpeople-educated-at-trinity-school-of-john-whitgiftliberal-democrats-(uk)-parliamentary-candidateslabour-party-(uk)-councillorsindependent-members-of-the-house-of-commons-of-the-united-kingdomlondon-ams-2000–2004london-ams-2004–2008