Reform UK names former prosecutor as candidate for London mayor

LONDON – Reform UK said former prosecutor Laila Cunningham will be its candidate for London Mayor at the next vote in 2028, as Mr Nigel Farage’s populist outfit seeks to build support in the British capital.

Ms Cunningham, who defected to Reform from the Conservatives in 2205, will be the face of the party’s campaign for a set of London-wide local council elections in May, the party said on Jan 7.

She became the party’s first councilor in the capital at the time of her defection, serving Westminster City Council.

While Reform has led national polls since April, it faces an uphill battle to gain traction in London, where it has no Members of Parliament and secured just 8.7 per cent of the vote in the 2024 general election.

In the same year, its mayoral candidate, Mr Howard Cox, secured just 3.2 per cent of votes in the capital.

Ms Cunningham, who has been an outspoken critic of London’s Metropolitan Police for a perceived failure to prosecute petty criminals, told reporters on Jan 7 that London is “no longer safe.”

She criticised Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has announced he will stand again in 2028, for not doing enough to tackle crime in the UK’s capital.

“I will ensure that there is a serious reckoning for those who have failed those victims and who have failed this city,” said Ms Cunningham, a Muslim mother of seven and the daughter of Egyptian immigrants. “There’ll be a new sheriff in town, and I’ll be launching an all-out war on crime.”

At the same press conference, Reform leader Nigel Farage said London was being talked about “around the world in increasingly disparaging terms.”

“London is now in the grip of a crime wave run by foreign criminal gangs,” he said.

Mr Khan has been mayor of London since 2016.

He has been continually criticised by US president Donald Trump, whom Mr Farage counts as a friend. BLOOMBERG