“I can no longer defend failure” said Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham as she quit the Conservatives and joined Reform UK becoming the first of many expected Reform Councillors in Westminster and London.
Cllr Cunningham, who is a mother of seven, in her mid-40s, and criminal lawyer and entrepreneur, says Reform, now with 15,800 members in the capital, can make gains in both Inner and Outer London against the Conservatives and Labour, failed parties, who have presided over a “dereliction of duty”, the massive reduction in police officers in the capital to fight crime and who are more interested in social media than fighting real crime.
Cllr Cunningham says “There will be a “massive surge” in Reform councillors in London after next year’s local elections, because the people of London are frustrated and they’re angry and they want to make a difference and to get their City back. “There’ll be pockets in central London where Reform can do well, but the Outer Ring is very, very interesting and in May, there’ll be many more Reform councillors!”. It’s not the usual people that want to run for council for Reform…..It’s actually residents who really experience hardship under a Conservative or a Labour council or a Labour-run London, and they’re frustrated and they’re angry and they want to make a difference.…I think you are going to see a massive surge in London in terms of Reform councillors”.
She’s probably right. Given the underlying anger at rising crime and lawlessness, the next Mayor of London could be a Reform member, rumoured at the moment to be Ant Middleton and this would bring A seismic shift in the capital’s politics and in attitudes to crime and policing.
“Laila is an enormously talented, successful woman who will add to the professionalisation of our London team as we look forward to contesting 32 borough elections in May next year, we are taking this very seriously,” …….said Nigel Farage.
Laila grew up in London and represents moderate Muslims, and is someone whose parents were Egyptian and arrived in the 1960s, and who renovated properties and set up a small hotels business, and wanted to “embrace full Britishness, British values and British culture”. She says she has watched as certain communities in this country have totally destroyed the image of British Muslims, and are not being called out for it and this makes her “very, very angry”.
Laila wants to defend British values and British rights and believes both the Tories and Labour have failed on crime, as well as on controlling migration, and have massively enlarged the public sector, creating spiralling national debt and destroying businesses on the back of “on the impact of “net stupid zero’. She says she is tired of defending 14 years of failure, speaking to residents, campaigning.
Does she back banning the burka in public? She says “I’m a lawyer, and I don’t understand what banning means, you’d have to be precise to me with what you mean by banning. Does that mean you’re arrested upon sight of it?….but I don’t think any face coverings should be allowed in public. If you cover your face in public, then that should be grounds for the police to stop and search you and to establish your identity… and yes, a time will come when all covering of your face in public may be illegal because as we rely more and more upon CCTV in the prevention of crime, face coverings will be unacceptable.”
Highly critical of the Online Safety Bill, she thinks US Vice President JD Vance is “Great….He tells it how it is. I really do believe in freedom of speech.”
Asked whether she will stand down to trigger a by-election to regain a mandate she said “No, I was elected because of what I stand for and my beliefs and my priorities for my residents have never changed. I’m responding to that priority, and London Councils need to understand that if Reform wins power in London councils, it would send in its DOGE efficiency units to cut costs.
Asked to name three things she would like to change in London, she cites
1. more police
2. fair allocation of social housing with families from London who have roots in London prioritised; and
3. proper administration to LAMA (“London Allowed to be Magnificent Again”).