LABOUR will be celebrating in both Croydon North and Croydon Central at next year's General Election, if you believe the bookies.
Ladbrokes have today announced Labour as odds-on favourites to take Croydon Central - a seat currently held by Tory Gavin Barwell.
Labour's candidate Sarah Jones is 8/11 to overturn the Tories' majority of just under 3,000 and claim back a seat her party held from 1997 to 2005, with Mr Barwell at evens to win another term.
Ukip and the Lib Dems are both rank outsiders, at 100/1 each.
According to the bookies, the results in Croydon North and Croydon South - perhaps unsurprisingly - are rather more clear cut.
Steve Reed is 1/100 to win again for Labour in Croydon North, while the Tories are 1/50 in Croydon South, where Chris Philp will be standing for the first time after the retirement of current MP Richard Ottaway.
The Tories are 20/1 to cause an upset in Croydon North and Labour an even more distant 25/1 in the true blue south.
Explaining the odds for the close-run Croydon North seat, Ladbrokes' Head of Politics, Matthew Shaddick, said: "Barwell is clearly a well regarded MP, but we just about make Labour favourites to take this back as things stand.
"One of the reasons that this seat is so difficult to predict is the impact that former Tory MP Andrew Pelling had on the 2010 result. He stood as an Independent but if the 6 per cent of voters who backed him then return to the Conservative fold, maybe Barwell can hang on.
"This is the kind of seat Labour must win if Ed Miliband has any chance of becoming Prime Minister."
