A Brief History of Sutton & Cheam CLP - Sutton and Cheam Labour Party

Over a century of campaigning for greater equality and social justice

As well as our In Memoriam page detailing local activists over the years and our Friends of Sutton and Cheam Labour page detailing some of our more recent candidates, below is a brief history of Sutton & Cheam Labour Constituency Party (CLP) which we will be adding more to as we research more.

Sutton and Cheam Labour Party have campaigned for greater equality and social justice for over a century. We are now one of the oldest continuously existing local community organisations and political institutions within the Borough of Sutton. And as we demonstrate below we are the oldest continuously active campaigning body within the borough.

We did not spring up from nowhere but came out of a meeting of national imperatives with local conditions and traditions of struggle by ordinary working people. These struggles locally can be traced back over 600 years as we show below.

Not only that but our recent research into our history has shown that both we and Epsom & Ewell CLP were set up by campaigners against Workhouses and the Poor Law who were also ahead of many in wanting to create what became the NHS we have today and they and many others across the UK succeeded within 27 years of our founding. That strong local commitment to those issues was likely geographically due to the “Epsom Cluster” of asylums and the harshness of local workhouses that we detail below. The local concentration on these issues also likely led to the foundation of the union COHSE, who actually had their HQ locally at Banstead and later merged with NUPE and NALGO to form Unison.

We can thus be proud that our modern campaigning on the NHS and against the austerity that leads to foodbanks is rooted in the founding ideals that led to people meeting to form a local Labour Party here over a century ago.

What follows is our CLP’s local history but much of it is shared with Epsom and Ewell CLP up until 1945 and Carshalton and Wallington CLP after 1964 as our population grew and we evolved from being a small town in part of a Surrey constituency to being one of two constituencies in a modern urbanized London Borough.

We also recognise the small part we also collectively play in a much wider movement of 390,000 Labour members, 6.7 million trade unionists and 13.4 million members of Consumer and Worker Co-operatives in the UK campaigning together for the democratic socialist principles of greater equality and social justice. Our local strength comes from that deep connection with institutions that are rooted in the wider community and can democratically seek power across the whole UK.

The research below also includes useful links to a number of databases and digitised records for further research, so this page can also be a toolkit for those conducting follow-up research into our history and wider local history. It’s an ongoing live document too, so even includes Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to transparently clarify the current position of historic issues.

This short history looks back and as we will see pandemics and Poll Taxes are not singular events! As a result this history may also have some pointers to our future too.

Traditions of Political Struggle Locally

Prior to the Victorian era, both Sutton and Cheam were agricultural areas with a tough life for the poor who nevertheless gathered to protest. There is little recorded history, but what exists is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. History recorded is mainly about the feudal owners of the land and their rights and disputes and unlike Beddington or Morden there do not seem to be transcribed Manorial Court Rolls showing judgments on those farming the land. Some older histories from 1792 and 1912 for Sutton are here and here and for Cheam are here and here which only refer to the poor of the parish in terms of being potential recipients of money left by some of the wealthy in their wills.
The substantial economic and social upheavals caused by The Black Death bubonic plague pandemic in Europe from 1347-1351 were followed by the financial demands of the Hundred Years’ War. This led to the government levying three poll taxes in four years. The third, that of 1380, demanded a flat rate of 12d per adult and was levied in April 1381 leading to the Poll Tax rebellion of June 1381 – also known as The Peasant’s Revolt. The king and his government initially agreed to the people’s demands, but after their dispersal the leaders were pursued, captured and executed, and the king’s concessions were revoked. This was followed by many court cases seeking to hold the rebels to account and local people from Sutton and particularly Cheam were punished for trespass at Courts held after the 1381 Poll Tax rebellion. This type of legal battle was of course replicated in 1990 when local campaigners delayed hundreds of court cases during the most recent attempt to bring in a Poll Tax by Mrs Thatcher. For those who want to research more on the People and Places of the 1381 Poll Tax Rebellion, this database is invaluable.
Recent research by John Phillips of the Carshalton and District History and Archaeological Society (CADHAS) has indicated that those who owned the village under feudal rules were not keen on poor people. He writes: It appears that in the late 15th century the Abbott of Chertsey or the Cook family consolidated the land holding in Sutton and probably caused a fall in the population. This did not really recover until the late 18th century and it is likely that the lords of the manor ran it as a closed village by limiting the number of cottages that were occupied by poor people with a view to minimising the cost of relief which fell on a parish rate. Anyone who thinks arguments over the level of welfare benefits are a new thing can clearly be referred to this research.
Many years ago when Sutton Council was discussing an event commemorating the construction in 1538 of Nonsuch Palace on the edge of Cheam, a Labour Councillor posed the question: what was the Council doing to acknowledge the fact that residents of the village of Cuddington (which stretched into the Worcester Park part of Sutton) were forcibly cleared off the land they farmed and all their homes and their local church demolished? Sadly no chronicler of the time records what their reaction was and how they were treated during the clearance. Noted Sutton historian Doug Cluett in the 1990’s further speculated that people lost their land when the parkland and gardens of nearby Beddington Manor (now known as Carew Manor) were extended in the 16th Century.
The impact of the religious conflicts of the Reformation era on the common people are hard to measure, however Cheam’s feudal owners were themselves in legal dispute over religious recusancy.
The English Civil War saw Sutton and Cheam within a Surrey whose gentry and militias were strongly Parliamentarian. However Royalist attempts to advance towards London happened a number of times in late 1642 and 1643. In 1643, some Royalist troops passed along the route of the old Roman Road of Stane Street in retreat, through Sutton Common to Cheam and three of their soldiers are buried in the churchyard of St Dunstan’s, Cheam.
Whilst the coal driven Industrial Revolution as such was not a big material driver of change in Sutton and Cheam, both were near the the heavily water power industrialised River Wandle which was a very significant part of the local economy in the 18th and 19th centuries, and which was declared one of the most polluted rivers in England. The main industries then were tobacco and textiles and migrant Huguenot refugees for France gravitated there. The river was, at it’s industrial height, used to power 68 water wheels.
Life was precarious and the changing economics of agriculture and a rising population meant many were forced into a life of crime despite harsh penalties against it. Through much of the 18th century Highwaymen were recorded in the Sutton Common area to the north of Sutton village and gallows and gibbets were erected as a deterrent with one at Alcorn Close off Sutton Common Road next to the present day Life Centre library.
This industrial driven economic growth and also the rise of tourism as the wealthy in London visited developing coastal towns like Brighton by the Regency period was also leading to more travel between and through what had previously been far more isolated agricultural areas. This rising demand for travel led in 1706 to the Turnpike Act which brought in privately run toll roads to finance the upkeep of major routes, so by 1830 there were over 1,000. In 1755, a turnpike road from London to Brighton was constructed, intersecting at Sutton with a turnpike road from Carshalton to Ewell which was constructed at the same time. This increased activity no doubt provided local employment to maintain the roads but with Inns and places to rest or change coach horses like The Angel and the The Cock inns, they can nowadays be seen as a stronger social network (with Sutton’s turnpike intersection perhaps being nowadays seen as a “network hub”) which likely led to the greater spread of the more radical ideas of the Enlightenment, where many more would question things compared to the past. The Turnpike route inn’s and associated beer houses that were provided for the poor, along with the rise of literacy and spread of political pamphlets likely aided this too. The arrival of the railway in Sutton in 1847 further added to those “network effects” and also further created “critical mass” in terms of rapidly increasing population, as will be shown in the next section, where the emancipation of ordinary working people through their own self-organisation does seem to take off from 1850 onward. The Toll Bars where road tolls were collected remained in place until 1882 as responsibility for roads was transferred to the newly developing local government bodies at the time elected on a very narrow electoral franchise that excluded the poor and women.
From 1730 various Inclosure Acts saw the privatisation of much formerly Common Land across Surrey and nearby Beddington saw its fields enclosed in 1812. This process led to many protests and riots across the country as a result of tenant farmer rent rises of between 33% and 300%. For those who want to further study Inclosure decisions, the National Archives have a database of records.
There was an attempt to enclose local land in 1741 when the Lord of the Manor and James Baker hedged, ditched and ploughed on Bonhill Common (the then name for the area north-east of the village with Sutton Common more to the north-west) in an attempted enclosure. However the copyholders fought and won their ancient rights to depasture their cattle, levant and couchant, and to cut bushes and furze on the Common four months in the year.
However pressure to privatise land continued and Cheam was enclosed in 1806 with Sutton’s common lands enclosed over 1809-16. Under the terms of the enclosure award, a small part of the common at Sutton Green was reserved as a recreation ground. However if you think the modern Sutton descendants of the original Commoners had rights with Sutton Green, the land itself whilst being registered as Village Green Common Land, was still feudally in the hands of a Lady of the Manor in 2011 as the links here and here show. Indeed it now seems as of 2020, over 200 years later, that feudalism remains alive in Sutton as Sutton Green is still under the ownership of the Lady of the Manor. In order to add to this bit of ongoing history and increase local public transparency, our CLP has made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request of the London Borough of Sutton to put the name of the Lady of the Manor into the public domain and the council remarkably refused to reveal it on data protection grounds. We have appealed over this decision. However at present local feudal remnants within Sutton hide behind data protection to minimise public accountability. In comparison the Lord of the Manor of West Cheam (who as far as we know owns no Sutton land) is publicly available
William Cobbett, documenting harsh agricultural conditions in the 1820’s in his book “Rural Rides“, travelled through Sutton along the Brighton Road from Belmont to Rosehill.
In 1830 it was recorded that there was hayrick-burning in Cheam as part of the protests during the Captain Swing agricultural rebellion as many still felt their voice was not listened to.

Beginnings

A number of factors demonstrated the need for a distinctive democratic political voice for the voiceless who had previously only had the option of rebellion to be listened to.
Policies such as enclosures that drove people off the land meant that between 1500 and 1800 the percentage of people working in agriculture had declined from 75% to 35%.
Economic and Political Demands were rising from the new democratic institutions of working people that had developed in the 19th century such as trade unions, mutual benefit societies such as the Sutton mutual benefit society, and Sutton New Town Mutual Improvement Society and also co-operatives. The development of the Co-operative movement in the north of England in terms of principles and replicable structures from 1844 and 1863 was further spread by better and more accessible communications networks (from better roads to rail to a postal service) as well as the shift to near universal basic literacy which rapidly rose in the second half of the 19th century with male literacy up from 69.3% to 97.2%, whilst for women, the improvement in literacy rates was even more pronounced, from 54.8% to 96.8%.
With the 1832 Reform Act seen as inadequate, pressure was slowly paying off to expand the electoral franchise despite 6 Chartist petitions being rejected between 1839 & 1851, even though women were still not enfranchised at all. The database of 14,000 Chartist ancestors does not seem to list anyone from our area but others are welcome to search through it.
At the same time as all this, political ideology had developed to broaden demands for a better future for working people with popular books like Merrie England by Robert Blatchford selling over 875,000 copies in the UK by 1895 and in total two million copies worldwide.
The Labour Party, as a party initially formed as the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900 by trade unions and small social democratic and democratic socialist organisations to advance workers rights was itself evolving in response to these rapid changes and by 1918 had adopted tenets of democratic socialism as its aims and values. In the period up to the World War One it was clear the existing rights people had and their conditions and welfare were seen as inadequate to meet the challenges of the period. Our formation came at a point after a terrible and very transformative global war but also after significant national and local institutional change too as is shown below.
Whilst Sutton and Cheam had a lot affluence as a developing urban area in Victorian and Edwardian times, conditions for the poor were still harsh. An example is the reputation of the Belmont Workhouse that existed under Poor Law provision, with over 300 residents rioting there in 1910, which was still well remembered when we were founded in 1918. More on that riot which had 89 arrests and some leaders sentenced to Hard Labour in prison is here.
Active Fabian Society member and future Labour Candidate, the famous writer H.G Wells lives in Sutton and Cheam at 25 Langley Park Road for a short time. The Fabians in a pamphlet recommend people read some of his non-fiction books.
Nearby in Carshalton Beeches, Frank Dickinson, self- building Little Holland House, is influenced by John Ruskin, who had sought to preserve parts of Carshalton Village, (and who wrote about the local area in The Crown of Wild Olive). Frank is part of the local Arts and Craft Movement further influenced by the socialist ideas and aesthetics of William Morris and Walter Crane.
Between 1912 and 1915 Rose Hill Garden Suburb later renamed Sutton Garden Suburb is developed to the social and aesthetic principles of the Garden City movement, as originally conceived by Ebenezer Howard. These sought to create a community with the advantages of both the town and the country, improving housing conditions and amenities for working people. Prior to the War, tenants of the completed housing rented a “close” cottage and were also encouraged to buy shares in Sutton Garden Suburb Limited. This was in keeping with some of the ideals of Ebenezer Howard, who supported the idea of co-operative housing.
The tragic death of Suffragette Emily Davison at the 1913 Derby at the Epsom Racecourse within the Epsom Parliamentary Constituency meant Women’s Suffrage was a live local issue at the time. On the 100th anniversary of that sad event representatives of Epsom & Ewell, Sutton & Cheam and Carshalton & Wallington Labour Parties placed flowers at the plaque on the racecourse.
Local Trade Unions are developing in this period and want political representation to secure their aspirations. This includes the National Asylum Workers’ Union (NAWU) established in 1910 and the Poor Law Workers’ Trade Union established in 1918 (both predecessor unions to COHSE and later Unison) who were well organised locally due to the “Epsom Cluster” of asylums. They were later strong supporters of Stanley Morgan – our 1929, 1931 and 1935 Parliamentary candidate.
Sutton Co-operative Society was merging with Croydon Co-operative Society in 1918, which had already merged with Epsom Co-operative Society in 1916. This was creating the South Suburban Co-operative Society which had an active Political Committee for the sponsorship of candidates for elected office and would continue to exist until 1984 when it merged again. Co-operative Societies in the UK had already launched the Co-operative Party in 1917 which by 1927 had an Electoral Agreement with the Labour Party. A short history of Co-operatives and Mutuals in Sutton can be read on the Sutton Co-op Party Website here.
At a local level, in nearby Croydon Constituency the Labour Representation Committee had already stood a candidate in the 1906 General election and later, as the newly re-named Labour Party, stood a candidate in a by-election there in 1909. It was only a matter of time before all the social and political imperatives above would coalesce into the formation of a local Labour Party. In the end these were actually stronger than many other areas.

1918-1945: Foundation as part of Epsom Labour Party

In February 1918 Labour Party Conference adopted a new constitution which allowed for the formation of Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). Within months of this many CLPs started to form and the development of this localist institution is perhaps underestimated in the reasons for the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920’s. As far as can be seen there has been no systematic research into the speed of CLP creation but as a proxy we can use the number of Labour candidates in the field at each election and this rose from 361 in 1918 to 514 by 1924 and was up to 569 by 1929 when pretty much most of the country was covered by local CLP organisation.
Organisational mergers to create larger more political local institutions plus the recent formation and specific concentration of trade unions in the area meant it was quite likely Epsom Labour Party and its Sutton and Cheam District Party were going to be in the first 361 CLPs to properly form and contest the 1918 General Election.
We were founded on a summer solstice and longest day: Friday 21 June 1918 as the Sutton District Labour Party (Cheam was added in 1928) of Epsom Constituency Labour Party (then known as the Epsom Divisional Labour Party) in the Function Room at the Robin Hood Pub in Sutton (which still exists). It now seems like the continuation of a far older tradition outlined in the sections above that we were founded during midsummer in a pub named after a legendary figure who sought to take from the rich to give to the poor.
The first officers elected were: Chair: Horace Sharpe, Secretary: Mr Norman, Treasurer: Mr F. C. Haggar. Jack Goossens was a founder member having been one of the founder organisers of Sutton United Football Club in the same local pub 20 years earlier.
These were the days when local authorities were quite small and a large semi-rural constituency like Epsom could contain a number of local authorities. In this case the borough of Epsom and Ewell, Epsom Rural District, Leatherhead Urban District and the newly merged Sutton and Cheam Urban District – which with 1920’s growth became a borough itself in 1934. A map of the 1918-1945 Epsom constituency is here. Sutton and Cheam itself was perhaps a bit of a building site at the time as much farmland was sold for housing and population rose from 21,063 in 1921 to 73,593 by 1939.
As a result of all this District Labour Parties (DLP) were quite an important intermediate body between the overall CLP and its ward based branches concerned with contesting local elections in their local authority area. As far as we know no one has written a history of the role of small DLPs as an another important localist institution in the rise of the Labour Party but our formation as a DLP within a CLP and later becoming a CLP in our own right gives us a distinct continuous history of over century.
Epsom Labour stood James Chuter Ede in the 1918 General Election – one of only 361 Labour candidates in a Parliament of 707 seats. James Chuter Ede later wins the Mitcham by-election in 1923 (which includes Carshalton and Wallington constituency as well as the Mitcham part of Mitcham and Morden) which he holds for a year and then becomes an MP in the North East of England. He later serves as the Home Secretary in the 1945-51 Attlee Labour Government.
1919. First Labour Councillors elected to Sutton and Cheam Urban District Council where they soon became the principal opposition on the Council. We were the first political party to actively contest local elections in this area. We often win seats in Sutton East Central ward, and sometimes in Sutton West Central, Sutton North and Sutton North East wards.
Labour locally focuses its early campaigns on better health and welfare provision. Our 1929, 1931 and 1935 Parliamentary candidate Stanley Morgan is strongly backed by the National Asylum Workers’ Union (NAWU) and the Poor Law Workers’ Trade Union. We are proud to be part of a movement that delivered the National Health Service (NHS) and abolished many means tests and remnants of Poor Law workhouse provision by 1945.
The 1926 General Strike lasted for 9 days and whilst there has been published research on Kingston and Croydon, there is no detail as to what happened in Sutton. This may be an area for further research? From the experience of other local areas that local research may mainly show the recorded activity of the volunteers supporting the Baldwin government than it would the activity of those supporting the TUC strike call as due to the specific unions called out on strike it would have only been railway & other transport workers in this area of London. For those wanting to follow up on this, the Government’s British Gazette and the TUC’s British Worker along with other newspapers of the time have been digitised here.
Helen Mary Keynes is the CLPs first woman parliamentary candidate standing in the 1928 Epsom by-election. She stood at a time when women had only had the vote for 10 years and only women over the age of 30 had a vote at all – which when you think of it, as well as being wrong, may increasingly sound very strange to all of us today. She was a novelist writing at least 3 books as well as a political activist serving on the Executive of the Fabian Society and was Secretary of the Society of Labour Candidates, which helped candidates network and share ideas.
In 1931 the second Labour Government fell and a National Government was formed. Supporters of that Government split away to form National Labour. There is no evidence from our research that any local members signed up to it.
Unemployment was high during the great depression and the notorious poor condition Belmont Workhouse was used as a workhouse and “Training Centre” for unemployed men under the then Tory “Municipal Reform” controlled LCC, leading to a number of sit-ins and sit-down strikes.
By the 1933 Local elections Labour was well established in Central Ward with Jack Goossens, Mr J. S Horne, G J Jewett and Mr W. P. Simmonds as Councillors.
1933. Sutton District Labour Party purchased land and built its first Labour Hall.
Fundraising and social activity is important and Party owns some land next to its Hall that is used for allotments for growing food. It even has a gardening trophy that it awards annually.
Dr Somerville Hastings, our Parliamentary Candidate from the 1922 election, by now the Secretary of the Socialist Medical Association, (nowadays called the Socialist Health Association) successfully proposes a resolution at the 1932 Labour Party Conference and then sat on the follow up Party Committee that produced a Report endorsed by Conference in 1934 that the party should be committed to the establishment of a State Health Service. Just 11 years later the British people give Labour the opportunity to deliver on that commitment.
Within the borough of Sutton, local members show solidarity with Spanish refugee children fleeing the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and many are put up locally.
1938. A Labour Councillor, Jack Goossens, became Mayor of the Sutton and Cheam Borough Council. He was also Mayor again in 1940 as part of the war-time political truce.
1939-1945. The Labour Hall was used as a war-time British Restaurant to feed people bombed out of their homes or who had run out of ration coupons

1945-1970: The Sutton and Cheam Constituency Labour Party is created and thrives

1945. The District Party becomes a Constituency Party as the Epsom seat is split to reflect large population growth in the 1930s. A map of the new 1945 constituencies is here. Sutton and Cheam is nowadays a very rare constituency that has had very little boundary change for nearly 80 years.
In the 1945 General Election we poll over 17,000 votes and Helen Judd narrowly misses being elected. She runs again for Labour in the 1950 General Election.
In the 1946 Surrey County Council elections we win 2 out of 3 County Council seats in the constituency.
We produce a local Labour Party Newspaper which we go door to door and sell to voters. It becomes a useful all-year round way to identify sympathetic Labour voters in the constituency due to more rigid rules over canvassing for votes outside elections that existed at the time.
After the war, Sutton Labour Councillors campaign hard for the provision of more Council Housing. Some members in the area are supportive to people bombed out of their homes who squat in disused army Nissen Huts. An initial solution is the building of prefabs (an example were the Prefabs on what is now the Shanklin Village estate) which later leads to building of proper homes in replacement.
The local Party debates all the advances made by the Attlee Government and asks members and voters what challenges we should address next
In the 1959 General Election Frank Judd stands as the Labour candidate. He later becomes an MP for Portsmouth, becomes the Minister for Overseas Development and after Parliament is Director of Oxfam. Later on he becomes Lord Judd and serves in the House of Lords.
In 1964 we become part of Greater London and the new London Borough of Sutton is formed and we win Council seats in Sutton Central and North Cheam wards. Within the new borough, ourselves and Carshalton and Wallington Labour work closely together to seek to elect Labour Councillors.
Our 1964 General Election candidate is Paul Derrick who writes Fabian Research pamphlets on the role of business in the community – developing ideas on Corporate Social Responsibility long before it is fashionable.
Whilst the CLP had a wide range of views at the time from Gaitskellites to Tribunites the CLP was well known from the 1960’s for a group of members who all lived in The Crescent in Belmont which was nicknamed the “The Red Crescent” – perhaps Sutton’s own small version of “Hampstead Socialism”. This included Betty Vernon, Lord Ritchie Calder, the Judd’s and Pauline and Tony Brennan. Some were Councillors, some Civil Servants, one a peer and one an MP. They represented both Harold Wilson’s “white heat of technology” modernism and Fabian research methods, but also stronger radicalism on disarmament, anti-colonialism, overseas development and education reform. Over the next 20 years they would be very influential both locally and on some national policy debates. Some of our members still remember the Summer Garden Parties held at the Brennans’ house in the Cheam ward part of The Crescent. Betty Vernon ran a Sutton Fabian Society in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and it later became Sutton and Epsom Fabians and through some of their activism they were further linked with the subsequent North West Surrey Fabians who met at Sam Greene’s house just over the border in Burgh Heath Road, Epsom.
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Fanny Lines – later a Surrey County Councillor – acts as our paid Organiser and Membership Secretary at a time when all subscriptions are collected and it is administered as a paper operated local system not the online systems we have today.
In the 1966 General election we poll over 13,000 votes.
In 1966-1967 we rebuild our Labour Hall, which becomes Harold Wilson Hall in honour of the Labour Prime Minister at the time.
In the late 1960’s the US involvement in the Vietnam War became an issue and many local members took part in protests. Indeed in 2023 at a CLP GC meeting three members present said they had been among the estimated 10,000-30,000 present at the 1968 Grosvenor Square Protests outside the U.S embassy.
Local Party members promoted local Anti-Apartheid Groups and there was one based in Banstead which members raised funds for.

The 1970’s: Successes and Reverses

In April 1970 as part of the GLC Elections Labour Secretary of State for Social Services Richard Crossman spoke at a public meeting.
In early 1971 Harold Wilson Hall is used as the strike headquarters of the Union of Postal Workers (now part of the CWU) 7 week postal strike. Labour members help in a number of industrial disputes that characterised the Heath Government’s confrontational attitude to trade unions at the time.
In May 1971 we poll over 35% of the vote and elect 7 Councillors in Sutton Central, Sutton East, Sutton North East and North Cheam Wards. Elsewhere in the borough our long-standing members Phil Bassett and Betty Vernon are re-elected in St Helier South ward with 96.5% of the share of the vote but on a remarkable 61.3% turnout (in other words 59.2% of all electors voted for them) which is likely to be a UK record for such a percentage vote on such a high turnout. We have actually found out how they achieved this but are not publishing that campaign technique on a public website.
In the early 1970’s our members were working the South Suburban Co-operative Society and Sutton Co-op Party on a project where a disused Co-op Butchers shop was used to raise funds for communities in Botswana as part of our commitment to international aid and global solidarity.
We suffer a set-back in the 1972 parliamentary by-election, however our vote recovers a lot by 1974 and we win Council seats in Sutton East Ward.
Local members also help in Sutton & Cheam member Phil Bassett’s successful campaign in 1973 to win the neighbouring Carshalton and Wallington GLC seat. Phil represents the seat until he is defeated in the 1977 GLC elections.
In February 1973 a Labour Party Young Socialist Branch was established and John Evers – who later became a Councillor – was Secretary. Younger members got in the news when an 18 year old pupil of Glastonbury High School was appointed as a School Governor by Sutton Labour Councillors and this was attacked by Tory Councillors.
By 1973 our General Committee (GC) increases local member participation by allowing all members to come along and have speaking rights. This is years ahead of many other CLPs.
From 1973 for a number of years we organised “Friday Night at the Hall”, at Harold Wilson Hall where we had meetings, social and ran a general “Open House” for new members to come along to meet people.
Local members take differing views in the 1975 Common Market referendum and there are local debates with various speakers for and against. Members have the right to campaign for either side. The Greater London count area that we are part of votes 67% Yes similar to the national result.
In March 1978, future Labour Leader Neil Kinnock spoke at a members meeting on public transport.
During this period from 1968 to 1982 all the Leaders of the Labour Opposition on Sutton Council: Councillors Phil Bassett, Evelyn McEwan and Pauline Brennan are Sutton and Cheam activists. Evelyn McEwen is a national campaigner for Universal Basic Income, (UBI) long before it becomes a subject for much wider debate.
Our local members campaign hard for better local education for all and an expansion of comprehensive education. In April 1978 as part of the local elections the Party organised a joint public meeting with Carshalton and Wallington Labour with Labour Education Minister Shirley Williams speaking about comprehensive education.
Our conference delegates take part in important debates as to the future of the Party after the 1979 General Election defeat. From 1979 to 1992 Labour selects Parliamentary candidates who reflect the activist politics of the time.

The 1980’s: Community Campaigning

Future Labour Leader, Neil Kinnock speaks at a public meeting in Sutton in 1980 over the future of local Education.
In 1980 we hold a Party to celebrate the centenary of Jack Goossens, a Mayor of Sutton and Cheam and founding member of both Sutton United Football Club and Sutton and Cheam Labour Party.
Issues such as Nuclear Disarmament are to the fore in this era and some members attend the large CND demonstrations held at this time.
We run local campaigns against Thatcher era hospital closures such as the one at Cheam Hospital.
Labour suffered a National split in the early 1980’s with the formation of the SDP. This does not affect us as the only Party member who joins them is already an ex-member who had stood as an Independent in the 1979 General Election against the official Labour candidate on issues unrelated to the political splits at the time.
In the 1981 Deputy Leadership election, the CLP is again a pioneer & is one of less than 50 holding a One Member One Vote (OMOV) ballot to determine its delegate’s vote. Information from the era is rarely available but the result locally was Denis Healey 143 (56.52%), Tony Benn 91 (35.97%) John Silkin 19 (7.51%) on a 70.75% turnout. The CLP does so again in the 1983, 1988 and 1992 Leadership elections. OMOV is now championed across the Party nowadays but it was a political dividing line at the time.
In the 1982 local elections we are proud that one of our candidates is openly LGBTQ+ at a time when there is still intense prejudice against the community and the Tory Government is demonising it through the media and legislation.
In 1982 our members along with Carshalton & Wallington member support South Suburban Co-operative Party activists ensuring its political role is protected and also oppose shop closures. The local Sutton Co-op Party Branch which is affiliated to us gains members as a result.
Local membership rises to 377 as a result of our campaigns. Fundraising is still important and the Party establishes a “100 Club” for regular donations.
For the 1983 Leadership election the CLP nominated Neil Kinnock for both Leader and Deputy Leader. He went on to win the Leader election.
In 1984 the government ban unions at GCHQ in Cheltenham which becomes one of the longest disputes in trade union history. Local members in the civil service unions take part in some of the industrial action in response to that and the CLP in general supports London based events.
In 1984 members of the CLP attend the Tolpuddle 150 Festival in Dorset where the GCHQ dispute is a live issue. By the 2000’s when the annual event had turned into a weekend Boutique festival our members are regular attenders at Tolpuddle, campaigng there and also taking our CLP banner on the Sunday March around the village, a photo of which is on the home page of this website.
For a period in the 1980’s we have a workplace Labour branch at Business Press International (IPC) based at the Quadrant House building near Sutton Station. Our 1983 parliamentary candidate Geoff Dixon and CLP Secretary Frank Syratt were members of it. They organised a public meeting in 1983 with Tony Benn as a speaker. Frank Syratt, himself later went on to be Chief Executive of the Ramblers Association and work with New Internationalist magazine.
Electorally we see some success in the new European Elections, with a very clear runner up spot to be main challenger to the Tories in the larger London South seat in 1979 and the London South and Surrey East seat in the 1984, 1989 and 1994 elections. Gill Roles narrowly misses winning in 1994. In 1984 our candidate is Andrew Mackinlay who by 1992 is MP for Thurrock and in 1989 our candidate is Robert Evans who is eventually elected as an MEP in 1994 and currently is the Leader of the Labour Group on Surrey County Council. His namesake David Evans who was Robert’s election agent for the 1989 campaign in our area is now the General Secretary of the Party.
The local Party focuses on the industrial disputes of the time with some members attending the big demonstrations in support of the Miners and Print Workers and the local Party organising comedy night fundraising benefits for the Miner’s strike with the support of Ragged Trousered Cabaret. Our fundraising also includes at least two full musicals covering historical events.
We also worked closely with the Sutton Trade Union Resource Centre that existed in the borough at the time. The head of it, Jerry Cullen, runs as one of our candidates in Sutton East ward. We also welcome the opening of Sutton Women’s Centre that is initially funded by the Labour controlled GLC, but which long outlasts that organisation and continues to make a vital local contribution to women’s rights and equality today.
By the mid 1980’s working with local Co-op Party members we were encouraging the sale of Fairtrade goods at some of our fundraising events. This was before formal accreditation was adopted and the issue took off in the mid to late 1990’s.
The local Party takes part in campaigns to defend the Labour controlled GLC that is eventually abolished by the Thatcher Government. Whilst we lose the campaign, the need for strategic London Government is clearly shown and is restored in 2000.
Local members in the spirit of the times were seeking to increase internal political accountability and CLP members attended the first Local Labour Manifesto Policy Conference held in 1986 which helped draw up the local Labour Manifesto for Local Elections. This has now become an established part of our local democracy with the 10th held online in 2022.
The change of Council control in 1986 saw the Tories out of power and led to a wider debate on environmental issues. Labour Councillors proposed an annual report on the state of the local environment as an amendment to a worthy statement on environmental issues and this was adopted by the Council which was in those days ahead of most of country on environmental issues.
Whilst traditional political party public meetings tended to die out by the 1980’s, we could still arrange a high profile one for our Parliamentary candidate Loraine Monk in May 1987 when Shadow Home Secretary Gerald Kaufman, Robin Cook MP and Roy Grantham the General Secretary of the union APEX were speakers at the Red Cross Hall in North Cheam.
We support the Council when it seeks to expand comprehensive education and condemn it when it stops that plan in 1987. Despite opposition to change, selective education in the borough ends up reducing its local connections to the Borough with wide catchment areas across the South East leading to 85% of Sutton pupils in effect having voluntary comprehensive secondary education.

The 1990’s: The build-up to a Labour Victory

Echoing their 14th century local ancestors, members are active in anti-Poll Tax protests and the local Sutton Against the Poll Tax campaign at the start of the decade.
In 1992 trade unionist and health campaigner Geoff Martin is our parliamentary candidate. He later goes on to help run the Left Field at the Glastonbury Festival for many years and is shown here introducing Billy Bragg who with Bill Bailey then does a pastiche of a Billy Bragg song. In 2017 as Comrade X he penned a song for the Sutton United FA cup run.
In the 1992 Leadership election the CLP nominated John Smith who went on to win the election.
In 1992 some of our members attend the large TUC demonstration against closure of the mines.
Labour Leader John Smith speaks at an outdoor rally in Sutton in 1993 in support of Employment Rights organised by local trade unions and attended by Labour members.
In 1993, future Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke at an outdoor rally at Sutton Green following a march from the hospital and through Sutton High Street as part of the campaign to keep Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children. Whilst the original site is sold off the hospital is successfully retained as part of St Helier Hospital.
For our 75th Birthday in 1993 we write to ask John Smith to visit. He cannot make it but sends a very gracious letter to the CLP which is framed and displayed.
The rise of the far-right sees local members help launch Sutton Anti-Racist Federation in 1994 which is even acknowledged by Sutton Council in a debate on the issue.
In 1994 Labour Leader John Smith tragically dies before having the “chance to serve” as UK Prime Minister. The public reaction to his death is very strong and there are public tributes paid within the Council Chamber of Sutton. The CLP agrees to purchase a John Smith Memorial Clock for Harold Wilson Hall.
Local members discuss the Party Revision of “Clause Four” of the Party Constitution on Party Aims and Values with some wanting to retain the existing wording, many supporting the proposed wording from the Party Leadership and still others suggesting alternative formulations.
One of our local branch Secretaries at this time is Adrian Lovett. He goes on to play a key role as Director of Jubilee 2000 and the Drop the Debt campaign in then building the much bigger Make Poverty History campaign in the mid 2000s which saw a major cut in third world debt. He is subsequently a guest speaker at one of our dinners and regales us with a story of how he was in the room with Bono of the band U2 when they finally convinced President George W Bush to sign up to the plan. But Adrian makes the further point that they have only got that far through the massive public pressure of campaigns over the previous 5 years. Adrian later goes on to be the Campaigns Director of Oxfam and of Save the Children and then the President and CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. He is now Chief Executive of Development Initiatives.
As a result of the rise in popularity in Labour in the run-up to the election of the 1997 Labour Government we poll well in two local Council ward by-elections in Sutton Common and Sutton West significantly increasing our vote. Part of the Sutton Common By-election campaign is against the proposed A24/A217 Link Road which both Tories and Lib Dems support. By 2000 we have won our case and it becomes an access road only.
From the mid 1990’s our Parliamentary selections reflect the political shifts within Labour at the time when the debate was often characterised as between “New Labour” and “Old Labour”.
In the 1997 General Election local member Mark Allison is our candidate and we poll our best result since 1970. Mark later moves to Merton and is Leader of Merton Council from 2020 to 2022.
Some of our members also go to help campaign to elect Siobhain McDonagh as Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden. She has been the MP ever since.
Our membership rises from around 280 to 350 in the run up to the 1997 General Election.
We purchase a proper CLP Banner that is often taken on marches and demonstrations.
We took part in community events, regularly running stalls at the Carshalton Environmental Fair.
In 1999 the change of electoral system for European Elections means London is a single constituency and in the 5 elections between 1999 and 2019 Sutton and Cheam is represented by between 2, 3 or 4 Labour MEPs.

2000-2015: Struggles and Revival

We start the decade with a close result in Sutton Central Ward in the 2002 local elections.
In the early 2000s Harold Wilson Hall is used as the organising HQ for the leafleting campaign to support the union Unison and Sutton Council Tenants in their Sutton Campaign Against Housing Transfer for Sutton’s Council Housing not to be transferred to a Housing Association. Over 14,000 leaflets were delivered and the consultation result which showed 91% of tenants wanted to stay with the Council was the highest ever percentage in the many consultations and ballots held at the time. As a result the Council adopted a Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) known as Sutton Housing Partnership (SHP) which enabled the Housing to stay with the Council and this was supported by the Sutton Labour Group of Councillors at the time. Local CLP member Enid Bakewell, who was one of the England Women’s Cricket team that won the World Cup in 1973 became one of the inaugural tenant representatives on the SHP Board.
For a brief time during this period Matthew Pennycook is our CLP Youth Officer. He later goes on to become the Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich.
There is controversy over the Iraq War and some members attend the biggest ever demonstration held in London. Some members also choose to resign from the Party over the issue.
In 2005 we select Anand Shukla as our Parliamentary candidate – our first candidate from BAME communities. He goes on to become Chief Executive of various charities in the Childcare and Social Mobility sectors.
In the latter part of the 2000s the local Party struggles with poor election results and low membership as a result of the unpopularity of the Labour government, yet we continue to contest every election. Labour has fought every seat locally since 1971 which is longer than any other Party locally. Current Director of Campaigns for the Labour Party Morgan McSweeney is both a candidate for us in the 2006 local elections and an election agent for us in a tough local by-election.
Despite this struggle, we continue to campaign to defend St Helier Hospital that comes under threat of downgrade and between 2008 and 2010 our proposals for a £250 million new unit there are adopted so by 2010 there is all-party consensus on the proposal. This only lasts until 2013 when the proposal is dropped by the Conservative & Lib Dem coalition government.
We sustain our activity with regular fundraising with an annual dinner and at one stage running 6 quiz nights a year. The national Party provides a direct online donations link which often brings in money around election time. Trade Union and Co-op Party donations are also gratefully welcomed at election time.
For our 90th Birthday in 2009 we held a celebratory barbecue at Harold Wilson Hall
Facing a tough battle to hold on to our vote in the 2010 General Election after a long period of Labour Government we select a resourceful local campaign organiser Kathy Allen as our candidate who runs a campaign alongside our 27 local Council candidates in the local elections held the same day. The Tories expect to win but their candidate’s campaign self-destructs after media reports and whilst our vote is down Kathy is rewarded with proportionally the largest personal vote a Sutton Labour candidate has ever secured in a local election – 38% larger than her two running mates in Sutton Central ward.
The Lib Dems, including the local MP, going into coalition with the Tories in 2010 is very unpopular and sees a strong local Labour revival as many Lib Dem voters switch to Labour.
In the 2010 Leadership election the CLP nominated David Miliband with Ed Miliband runner up. Ed went on to win the election.
Some of our members attend two big TUC organised demonstrations against the Government’s austerity policies and in defence of the NHS.
We purchase a red gazebo to make our street stalls more prominent.
We make better use of the data technology provided by the national party and over the course of 5 years from 2010 we increase our contact rate of voters by over 400% through comprehensive phoning of every ward in the constituency and a broad doorstep operation which benefits from active campaigns in two Council by-elections. This helps build our networks of Labour supporters across all the 9 wards that existed at the time. Many of those supporters would become members after 2015.
In 2013 on the 100th anniversary of the tragic death of the Suffragette Emily Davison at the 1913 Derby at the Epsom Racecourse representatives of Epsom & Ewell, Sutton & Cheam and Carshalton & Wallington Labour Parties placed flowers at the plaque on the racecourse.
In 2014 during the Scottish referendum, whilst fully recognising the decision is for the Scottish people, some of our members take part in an all-party event in Sutton Town Square, like many others held across the country, expressing our hope that Scots vote to freely remain with the other Nations in the UK.
Whilst our initial performance in the Croydon and Sutton GLA seat was relatively poor during the period of the last Labour Government, our 2012, 2016 and 2021 campaigns see us substantially erode the previously large Tory majority and make the seat a key target for GLA elections. Marina Ahmad our candidate in the 2016 election subsequently goes on to win the Lambeth and Southwark GLA seat in 2021.
Due to the electoral system Sutton and Cheam has been represented on the London Assembly since 2000 by 2,3 or 4 London list Labour representatives. The current two Labour representatives are Sakina Sheikh and Elly Baker who can be contacted by local residents here.
On top of our London Assembly performance Labour Mayoral candidates Ken Livingstone and Sadiq Khan win in wards locally like Sutton Central and Sutton South during their Mayoral elections.

2015-2019: The Party massively grows in size & enjoys electoral advances

In the 2015 General Election we make history by standing the first ever Labour Transgender Parliamentary candidate, Emily Brothers, whose selection is publicly welcomed by Labour Leader Ed Miliband. Emily is also blind and is supported by the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund, a government pilot scheme to improve access to standing for disabled parliamentary candidates. Emily is attacked by a columnist in the Sun newspaper and a 27,000 strong petition demands an apology. After an adjudication by the Press regulator IPSO, Emily wins a rare published full apology from the Sun. Emily is later shortlisted for a Liverpool Parliamentary seat but is sadly not selected. However she is elected to serve on the Fabian Society Executive and is also later elected as an Isle of Wight Town Councillor.
From 2015 onward we campaign against the proposed secondary school in Rosehill Park strongly backed by the Tories and facilitated by the Lib Dems through their planning policies. By 2022 the proposal is dropped. We also liaise regularly with local health campaigns such as KoSHH and Sutton KONP along with Merton & Sutton Trade Union Council on continuing the pressure to retain all services at St Helier Hospital. In 2018 as part of the campaign we work with Merton & Sutton Trades Council and local health campaigns to organise a big march from Manor Park in Sutton down the High Street to St Helier Hospital where a rally is held outside.
Membership increases from 180 to around 580 as a result of the two leadership elections in 2015 and 2016. This is larger than the the Conservatives and Lib Dems combined in the constituency. On top of the larger membership we also have over 250 registered affiliate trade union supporters too.
In the 2015 Leadership election the CLP nominated Jeremy Corbyn for Leader and Stella Creasy for Deputy Leader. Jeremy Corbyn went on to win the election.
Whilst some of the internal political debates of this period are probably too early to record as history and better deserve someone in the future writing them up, the local Party had its debates and then focuses on its campaigning. What can be said is no members left the Party to join the much smaller Change UK split compared to the 1980’s SDP one.
With a much larger membership and as part of our planned centenary celebrations in 2018 from 2016 onward we run monthly Robin Hood Drinks on a Friday in the pub we were founded. These continue until 2019 and two sets of elections disrupt them. Any planned restoration in 2020 is scuppered by Covid. Since then we have suggested our three branches host pub drinks and two of them have hosted drinks.
In the 2016 EU referendum our members have a free vote and can campaign for whatever outcome they prefer. Around 80% of our campaigners support the official Labour Remain campaign and our team plays an important organising role in the wider “Stronger In” campaign at the local referendum count. We already realise that if Sutton votes 48% Remain the country will have voted Remain overall but we know by Midnight from our count analysis that Sutton has voted 46% Remain so Leave will win nationally. This is 4 hours before the result is declared locally.
In the 2016 Leadership election the CLP nominated Jeremy Corbyn who went on to be re-elected as Leader.
We continue to support the local campaigns of the CWU union for the retention of Crown Post offices
We develop our fundraising holding two Stand Up for Labour comedy nights, quiz nights, wine tastings, dinners and curry nights. At the first comedy night Lucy Porter is one of the comedians, Sadiq Khan speaks and the famous comedian Windsor Davies (a CLP member since the 1990s) is present as a guest of honour. The second comedy night appears in this video.
We expand our social media and develop this website – probably the most comprehensive local Labour CLP website in the country.
In the 2017 General election our candidate is local health service campaigner Bonnie Craven and we poll our best Parliamentary result for 47 years. Bonnie stood again in 2019 and and later stood for General Secretary of the TSSA rail union, where she was runner up. Some members also go to help Sarah Jones secure election in the Croydon Central seat with a 5,600 majority.
In 2017 we pass what we believe to be the first Neurodiversity and Mental Health Charter agreed by a CLP.
In the 2018 Local elections we poll our best local election results for 47 years and narrowly miss winning a seat in Sutton Central Ward by 32 votes. Two-thirds of our 27 Council candidates are women which we believe to be a record in terms of women candidates standing for a Party.
Local member John Evers makes a substantial donation to the local Party to pay for new windows and doors for our Hall which we are very grateful for.
We plan a number of events for our centenary in 2018 and as a result have a number of MP’s visit to speak. However some other events have to be cancelled because we fight a by-election campaign in the Autumn. However the material we assemble for a centenary history is not wasted and has been used to write this history which was mainly written in the days after our 105th birthday.
In 2018 and 2019 the ongoing Brexit process becomes a full-blown political crisis and Government behaviour even goes to the Supreme Court for a ruling. Some members attend the very large demonstrations held during this period and also support the local pro-EU campaign group that is a continuation of the “Stronger-In” group. The crisis impacts on Labour with poor results in the final set of European elections. Despite the arguments which lead to splits in the two main parties and demobilises many members we fight a high visibility campaign and as a result have the 2nd lowest swing against Labour in the entire country.
In April 2019 we become one of the first CLPs in the country to pass a motion in support of a Green New Deal.
In the 2019 General Election we transform our Hall into a regular venue for the duration of the campaign with comedy and music nights as well as training events and phone banking sessions. As well as our own campaign we have the resources so that some members also go to help the campaign in Wimbledon too.

2020-2022: The Covid Pandemic

Labour members helped in many of the local Covid Mutual Aid Groups along with many others in the local community.
The local Party upgraded its technology to allow for online meetings and online voting.
In the 2020 Leadership election the CLP nominated Rebecca Long-Bailey for Leader and Dawn Butler for Deputy Leader.
We are still campaigning, following outdoor social distancing rules and organise outdoors protests and a car cavalcade in defense of St Helier Hospital.
Our members play a leading role in local campaigning on the issue of violence against women and girls and both CLPs in the borough of Sutton are the first ones to sign up as supporter organisations for the UK White Ribbon campaign. Our members also take part in marches in Sutton Town Centre called by Sutton Reclaim the Streets.
We fight the Croydon & Sutton GLA seat in the London Mayoral Election following the rules on social distancing. Despite the challenges to campaigning presented by Covid we achieve one of the better results on a day when there is a significant swing to the Tories before the decline and fall of the Tory Prime Minister in 2022.
In 2021 we adopted a policy on electoral reform which was confirmed again the following year and we end up seconding one of the motions on the subject considered by 2022 Party Conference.

2022-Present: Sutton and Cheam CLP Today

The Party narrowly missed winning seats in Sutton Central Ward in the 2022 Local Council elections. We work closely with newly elected Sutton Labour Councillors to promote our local policies.
Just as we had shown solidarity in the Spanish Civil War the local Party showed solidarity to the victims of the conflict in Ukraine, just as we also had with other conflicts around the world over the years.
We are still campaigning against an unnecessary health facility at Belmont and in favour A&Es at St Helier Hospital and Epsom Hospital. After more than 3 years delay many are sceptical that this proposal, which so far seems to be part of “Boris Johnson’s 40 imaginary hospitals” is ever going to happen? The wider danger is failure to deliver anything at all could mean vital urgent investment in St Helier Hospital is delayed.
We work closely with local Trade Unions and support them in their recent campaigns over pay and conditions.
We have a remarkable track record in moving motions, emergency motions and policy reference backs at Labour Party Conference which is at the level of a much larger trade union.
We continue to sustain and build a strong infrastructure of three local branches covering Sutton, Sutton Downs and Worcester Park & Stonecot, have 8 locally affiliated Trade Union Branches and a formal electoral relationship with the local Co-operative Party and strong connections with the local Fabian Society. We also maintain longstanding fraternal relations with Merton & Sutton Trade Union Council (MSTUC). Since the abolition of the National Supporters Scheme after it became controversial in past leadership elections we have again been a pioneering CLP with a less politically charged and more informal, locally focused Friends of Sutton and Cheam Labour alumni network. Our 2023 Christmas social was held at the Robin Hood pub where we were founded over 105 years earlier.
If those of the present or future reading this take one lesson away from this history we should note the importance of the “institutional turn” working people made in the late 19th and early 20th century and we should draw the conclusion from the history above that this wide ecology of local institutions contributes to our success in the good days and our local resilience in tougher times.
We are still evolving and building on those lessons by seeking to increase member participation by holding short branch meetings at the start of our General Committee making it easier for someone to get involved by becoming a delegate from their branch.
We continue to be a pioneering party often being an early adopter of ideas and activity that later become common place as some of the history above shows. Recently we have developed a more structured approach and outreach on equalities in general as well as also connecting that to current international issues where we recognise the need for Global Solidarity around Humanitarian Aid, Climate Change, International Development, Human Rights and Peacebuilding.
Our officers have recently taken part in training events about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on campaigning and the democratic process as we continue look forward to the new issues and challenges in our second century. The pace of change is rapid in Sutton as the 2021 census showed change in Sutton in the last decade with a 19,500 rise in population and a change to its ethnic make-up which reflected London trends, but also a very significant rise in private renting in a borough which for most of the last century generally worked to an assumption of a continued rise in owner-occupation.
The Local Party continues to thrive and campaign for greater equality and social justice just as we have always done. Activism and campaigning not only benefits the wider community but is psychologically good for individuals too. Why not join us?

As our ancestors discovered, and we of the present recognise too, in a world where climate change and the rise of Artificial Intelligence and discriminatory algorithms are some of our modern challenges, the work fighting for greater equality and social justice never ceases. We fought for one whole century and we of the present and our successors in future will continue to fight in the coming century with just the same fervour as our founders, with their experience of the harshness of local workhouses and asylums, did, when they met to start things off one midsummer evening in a pub named after Robin Hood.

As William Morris, a great inspiration for some of our local ancestors, said in A Dream of John Ball his political/historical novel on the Peasant’s Revolt – which also takes us right back to where we started this local history with the 1381 Poll Tax:

“I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name”.

With the ongoing support of our local members we will, as part of a much wider movement, continue to seek to turn the dreams of the past and the present into the realities of the future.

A Note of Thanks. This history was written up by CLP Chair Charlie Mansell in June 2023, but in reality is actually the sum total of all the individuals, some named and many not, who contributed to the campaigning and political activity described that justified its creation. We thank them for all that they have done to sustain us as a vital and vibrant local community organisation and political institution over the last century, building on even older traditions of protest and local political activity. It, and the related In Memoriam page of short biographies of former members, is dedicated to and written in tribute to Ron Phillips a Party member who passed away in May 2023 just before his 99th birthday and also to John Evers, who helped suggest the idea when attending Ron’s funeral. Thanks are also due to Marian Wingrove, John Evers, Phil Robinson (who it should be noted did very helpful research on the Party’s founding in our centenary year), Kathy Allen, JAS Weir, Candida Jones, Kevin O’Keeffe, Marilynne Burbage, Vince Romagnuolo, Pauline Gorman, Graham Obeney, Ray Eveleigh and Roy Aird for their helpful comments and contributions to the writing up of the events covered. We would also like to acknowledge the foresight of the late June Guiness in collecting old documents and passing them on to subsequent generations to write up this history. This web page is still being researched and added to and we welcome receiving further information which can be emailed to us at: suttoncheamclp@gmail.com. When complete its text will also be emailed to the People’s History Museum in Manchester and Sutton Council’s Heritage Service so it can be properly digitally archived as a contribution to this area’s local political history.