Andrew Judge re-elected as Merton Labour Group leader

At tonight's AGM of the Labour Group, Andrew Judge was unanimously re-elected as Merton Labour Group leader. Andrew has been leader of the Labour group in Merton since 2001 and as leader from 2001-6 helped transform Merton Council. Although we lost overall control last year of the council, we achieved the best result in London of any incumbent Labour Council. This was partly down to the considerable work put in during the period Andrew was leader within Merton Council in improving council performance and the delivery of services. The vast majority showed a marked improvement in his five years as leader. This will no doubt be recognised later this year when the results of the recent Corporate Assessment are released which primarily covers the period Labour was in control of Merton.

As an opposition party in a hung council we've held the Tories running Merton to account at every opportunity since the election last year along with exposing their waste and service cuts to vulnerable people. The next year will bring with it many challenges, but under Andrew we have no better person to lead us in the battles that lie ahead and lead Labour back to power in 2010.