Nigel Farage announces Reform UK candidate for London mayor

Reform UK’s Laila Cunningham will be the party’s candidate for London mayor when the capital next goes to the polls in 2028, Nigel Farage has announced.

The Reform UK leader also said Ms Cunningham will be the figurehead for the party’s campaign in London ahead of May’s elections, which he described as the “single most significant” electoral test ahead of the next general election.

Ms Cunningham, a Westminster City councillor, signalled she would focus on a crackdown on crime as Reform’s London mayoral candidate.

She and Mr Farage appeared together at a press conference on Wednesday morning in the capital, surrounded by banners which read “London needs Reform”.

She took aim at Labour Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan’s record on crime, and said she had a “different message” for Londoners.

“There will be a new sheriff in town, and I’ll be launching an all-out war on crime,” Ms Cunningham said.

She added: “I will set clear, high-level priorities for the Met to focus on tackling knife crime, drugs, robbery, shoplifting, rape.”

She also said she would task the police with “targeting, hunting and prosecuting rape gangs in London”.

Asked how she would reduce crime, the Westminster councillor said she would rewrite the London police and crime plan and give “new marching orders” to the Metropolitan Police to “tackle crime that matters”.

Ms Cunningham said policing problems in the Met were about priorities rather than recruitment.

The Reform mayoral candidate said she would scrap Ulez, the ultra-low emission zone, if she won power in London.

Ulez requires drivers to pay a daily charge based on how polluting the emissions from their vehicle are.

She was less certain about whether she would get rid of the congestion charge, telling a press conference “you will have to wait and find out”.

Elsewhere, she spoke about automating the Tube network, as a means of undercutting the power of the unions which represent Underground drivers.

Pressed about a claim she wanted to restore London to its “glory days” and when she thought those glory days were, Ms Cunningham referred to “when I was growing up”.

She added: “When I was growing up, I wasn’t scared to walk down the streets. I knew my local bobby. In fact, when I was growing up, my local teacher lived next to me. Now she can’t afford it. My local bobby lived next to me, now he can’t afford it.”

Asked if she wanted to see the Conservatives stand aside for Reform to improve their chances at the next London mayoral election, she did not appear to consider them a threat to her party’s chances of winning.

“They can do whatever they want,” Ms Cunningham said.

Ms Cunningham became a Conservative Westminster City councillor in 2022 but defected to Reform in June last year, saying she wanted to fight for “lower taxes, controlled borders, and putting Britain first”.

The former criminal prosecutor was born in London to Egyptian parents who emigrated to the UK in the 1960s and is a practising Muslim.

Speaking of her love for the capital, she said she learned “the importance of team spirit” playing basketball in the London Youth Games.

Ms Cunningham said: “I became a senior crown prosecutor here, and I’m raising my seven children here, and that’s seven reasons why I want to do this.”

Mr Farage said she had “given up a very successful, well-paid job to do this full time” as he announced her as his party’s mayoral candidate and head of London campaigning.

Ms Cunningham left her job at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in June last year after she made a series of politically charged comments while announcing her move to Reform.

Her role as a prosecutor bound her by strict rules limiting political activity that could be seen to compromise impartiality, in line with those followed by civil servants.

After Ms Cunningham’s comments to The Standard newspaper were published, the CPS said she had offered her resignation and it had been accepted.

She has since said she was called in for a meeting and told she may have breached the Civil Service code of conduct.

The councillor for Lancaster Gate ward accused both Labour and the Conservatives of failing on crime, spoke out about spiralling national debt, criticised net zero policies, and accused political leaders of leaving Londoners “angry and frustrated” in the interview.

Ms Cunningham told the newspaper: “It’s a dereliction of duty that there’s not more policing, more access to police, and that’s what I want to see a change.”

On Wednesday, she said crime in London was “not theoretical” for her family as she described tracking down balaclava-clad muggers who she said targeted her children after police failed to help her.

Ms Cunningham said: “I followed the gangs. I took photos because they were all in balaclavas. Their shoes were very distinct.

“I protected my family when the state couldn’t, the press called me vigilante mum, but I should never have been put in that position.”

A source close to London Mayor Sir Sadiq said: “After winning with a historic landslide victory in May 2024, his third, Sadiq is getting on with the job of delivering a fairer, safer, greener city for every Londoners.

“Sadiq has delivered 100 million free school meals for state primary school kids in the capital, helping families with the cost of living. The number of homicides in London are at a record low, he’s built a record number of council homes and Sadiq’s policies have cut harmful air pollution in the capital by 27%.”

Mr Farage is expected to reveal Reform UK’s leader in Scotland at a press conference in Edinburgh next Thursday.

He has not however revealed whether the party will have a separate leader in Wales, telling reporters the situation was a “work in progress”.