Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited Croydon on Saturday 29th January to see local Labour mayoral candidate Val Shawcross and also meet with local residents and businesses to hear their concerns about the rising cost of living. After spending some time speaking to campaign volunteers, including Alice Bonello aged 8 (above), the Shadow Chancellor moved on to hear local residents’ and businesses’ concerns about the rising cost of living.

The Shadow Chancellor headed to the local shops on the Lower Addiscombe Road and stopped to speak with Addiscombe’s local greengrocer James Monckton at Addiscombe Fruit and Veg. Mr Monckton spoke to the Shadow Chancellor about some of the difficulties small businesses are facing. Ms Reeves then moved on to Addiscombe’s landmark cafe, Daisy’s.

The CRO got a chance to speak to James Monckton from Addiscombe Fruit and Veg shortly after Ms Reeves left. Mr Monckton said he had been delighted to meet with the Shadow Chancellor. ‘I see Sarah Jones all the time, she often pops in when she is working at her office which is just up the road. You can always get a straight answer out of Sarah and I appreciate that’. He went on to add ‘Rachel Reeves seems good, understands a lot about the pressure of being in business’.

He rolled his eyes as he told me ‘the last well known politician to visit here was Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London a few years back. All he did was wander around telling everyone that he had bought a pound of mince in Gibson’s Butchers, which he hadn’t!’. He then confirmed that Rachel Reeves had bought a few things before she left, but would not be drawn on Ms Reeves’s taste in fruit and vegetables.