Andrew Pelling

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{{Infobox MP | name=Andrew Pelling | image= | country=United Kingdom | date_birth=20 August 1959 | place_birth= | date_death= | place_death= | term=2005 – present | before=Geraint Davies | spouse= | constituency=Croydon Central | term2= | before2= | after2= | constituency2= | party=Conservative Party }} Andrew John Pelling (born August 20, 1959) is a British Conservative politician. He is member of Parliament for Croydon Central, a member of the London Assembly for Croydon and Sutton and a councillor.

Pelling attended Trinity School, Croydon. He went on to New College, Oxford where he led the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1980. He rose to the position of Librarian (Vice-President) of the Oxford Union and ran for President four times, on one occasion losing to William Hague.

He was first elected to Croydon Council in 1982 in Broad Green ward. He now represents the ward of Heathfield. He served as Chair of the Education Committee in the early 1990s and subsequently became Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group when they lost control of the Council in 1994. He was then, from 2002 until 2005, the leader of the opposition Conservative group in Croydon. He used to be an international investment banker.

Pelling was first elected to the London Assembly in 2000, and retained his seat in 2004. He is a member of the London Development Agency and chairs the GLA budget committee. At the 2005 general election, he won Croydon Central by just 75 votes from Labour's Geraint Davies. A few days after the election, he was featured in several newspapers, including the main front page article of London's Evening Standard. It was claimed that he had left his wife of twenty years, Sanae Umeda Pelling, and three children for a 24-year-old Conservative activist, whilst his wife was in Japan tending for her sick father. Andrew Pelling is now engaged to Lucy Slaytor.

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