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About Me

Maddie Henson - Croydon & Sutton


I live in Addiscombe and apart from university have lived all my life in Croydon. I attended South Norwood Primary and Harris Crystal Palace before university, then moving for a few years to South Croydon before coming to Addiscombe. My sister lived for several years in Sutton and have family still there.

Being a Labour activist has been the cornerstone of my life. Starting at 16 and continuing ever since, Labour has been a second family to me and made me what I am today.

The Labour Party is in my blood

From the moment I joined I have given Labour my heart and soul. Starting from my first meeting, where I joined the fundraising team and immediately put on two fundraisers myself.

During my gap year I worked for Anne McGuire MP, while she was Minister for Disabilities, and she continues to be a huge inspiration for me. Anne remains a good friend and mentor. It was working for her that I developed a real love for politics.

Shortly after obtaining my degree, I attended my first conference in 2010 when I was elected as Croydon Central’s delegate. While there I was chosen to propose the housing composite which was reported in Inside Housing.

In 2014 I was elected to Ashburton ward in Croydon. Whilst I obtained a majority of over 200, Labour's lowest place candidate in the ward only scraped in by 8 votes - showing just how marginal the ward really was. Following the boundary review in 2018 the subsequent very marginal iteration Addiscombe East was even closer, and both in 2018 and 2022 I was the only successful Labour candidate in a split ward, the last time winning by 30 votes despite huge local swings against Labour, winning mainly due to the personal vote I had built up within the ward.

In the wider Labour movement my happiest moment was helping Sarah Jones get elected as an MP. Sarah is my idol within the party and to be a key part in her election was a dream.

During my time in the council I have been both Civic Mayor and Deputy Cabinet member for children. I was Civic Mayor during Covid, and despite these restrictions I was still able to do many events around my theme, which was early life. This included Reading Roadshows (during the July lifting of lockdowns), designed to promote reading in families, which were attended by over 500 people.

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More recently I co-ordinated Val Shawcross’s Croydon Mayoral selection and election campaign. This involved planning the campaign, producing the literature and managing the phone bank for the selection, which she won with 70% of the vote. Whilst Val ultimately lost the election we came back from 10 points behind to only lose by about 500 votes.

Since we lost the mayoralty in Croydon I have been free to throw myself at my ultimate passion – tackling child poverty. I now work for a Child Poverty charity.

My Achievements:

  • Civic Mayor of Croydon during Covid
  • Deputy Civic Mayor in 2019-20
  • Deputy Cabinet Member for Children's services in Croydon Council
  • Various Panels and Committees within Croydon, including the Adoption Panel and Children's Scrutiny
  • Organised campaign to restore Ashburton Hall to a vibrant community space
  • Introduced and followed up with workable site for new youth center in Ashburton Park
  • Relentless lobbying for several years to get Addiscombe area-wide traffic review
  • Created Addiscombe Winter Carnival
  • Set up Addiscombe Business Forum
  • Helped fundraise £100,000 for new swing park in Ashburton Park
  • Restarted Ward Panel in Addiscombe East
  • Helped form mutual aid group
  • Created reading roadshows throughout Croydon
  • Helped set up food delivery network in Addiscombe during Covid
  • Live-streamed receiving Covid Vaccine as Civic Mayor to encourage take-up
  • Fundraising Officer for Croydon Central CLP

I'm proud of what I've achieved as a ward councillor and as Civic Mayor, and would like the opportunity to fight the Tories to take this further as Labour's representative on the GLA.



Why choose me?


I believe there are several characteristics which make me a good campaigner.

  • The first and most important of these is my ability to connect with people. I get personally very emotionally invested in any campaign I take on whether it is something small like working with a local friends group, winning elections or raising money for multi-million pound regeneration projects.
  • I will always give every campaign my all, my time and my passion to winning whatever cause I become part of.
  • In my time in the Labour Party I have developed an excellent ability on the doorstep and have a good knowledge of the party technology, which my husband and I often extend to provide better local information.
  • I believe that the reason I have such a successful track record of winning elections is that I can connect with the electorate. I do not believe in changing who I am at home from when I am campaigning. I have a real desire to help people and that is what I show people whether on the doorstep, in public meetings or to the press.

My Priorities

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