Reform’s new London mayoral candidate has been accused of “talking down” the UK’s capital, after she said that people “pity” Londoners.
Laila Cunningham, a former senior crown prosecutor and a Reform Westminster city councillor, used a central London press conference to paint a picture of the capital as a crime-ridden metropolis, billing herself as “a new sheriff in town” who would, if elected, launch “an all-out war on crime”.
Standing alongside the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, Cunningham said she loved London, having been born and raised in the city, but claimed it was no longer safe. “I love this city with all my heart, but unlike some in this room, I’m not blind to what it’s become. London, one of the greatest cities on Earth, is no longer safe, and that doesn’t happen by accident,” she said.
She added: “When I was growing up, London was the place to live, the place to work, the place to build a life. People envied us that live here. Now, they pity us. They say: ‘London’s a bit too dangerous for me.’”
While the next mayoral election is not until 2028, Farage said Cunningham, who defected from the Conservatives last year, had proved herself to be “articulate, to be passionate, a mother”. She would be the face of Reform UK across London for the local elections in May, he added.
Cunningham told the news conference she would rewrite the London police and crime plan and give “new marching orders” to the Met to “tackle crime that matters”, listing knife crime, drugs, robbery, shoplifting and rape. The former prosecutor also said she would also scrap the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) if she won power, but when asked about the congestion charge said people would have to “wait and find out”.
Farage was also stark in his criticism of Khan, claiming London had been diminished by crime, an exodus of “the non-doms, the wealthy, the 30-something entrepreneurs and aspirationalists to Dubai, Milano, places like that”. He said: “[Khan] can’t think London today is the greatest city of the world. He is deluded and he wants to get out more.”
The Labour party in London said the announcement of Cunningham “confirms that Reform UK are offering the capital nothing but division and decline”.
“London represents everything Reform UK opposes: multiculturalism, openness and confidence in our shared future,” said a spokesperson. “Cunningham has made a habit of talking London down, repeatedly portraying our city as broken while opposing the multiculturalism that makes it the best city in the world.”
Farage and Cunningham were challenged on their portrayal of the capital as crime-ridden. The number of murders in the capital in the first nine months of 2025 was the lowest since monthly records began and they have fallen by almost 60% compared with 2003. Knife crime dropped by 19% between April and June in 2025 while the number of residential burglaries, personal thefts and personal robberies also fell, according to city hall data.
Farage said he did not accept the statistics and claimed many people who were asked to respond to the Crime Survey for England and Wales simply “throw it in the bin”.
Cunningham said it was a “dangerous narrative to push that London is safe because it’s very disrespectful to victims”, citing her experience as a senior crime prosecutor in London. “I can assure you, crime is not down. Crime is up,” she said.
Responding to the comments, the Liberal Democrats’ London spokesperson, Luke Taylor, said: “From its history, to its culture, to its people, London is the greatest city in the world, but all Reform seems to do is talk it down. Cunningham and Farage care more about sowing division than they do about solving the actual problems that Londoners face.”
