LONDON – Reform UK has named former prosecutor Laila Cunningham as its candidate for the 2028 London mayoral election, marking a strategic push by Nigel Farage’s party to challenge Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan in the British capital. Cunningham, a Muslim mother of seven who defected from the Conservatives in 2025, became the party’s first London councillor on Westminster City Council and now leads its campaign for May’s local elections. She sharply criticised Khan for failing to curb rising crime, declaring London “no longer safe” and pledging an “all-out war” on knife crime, drugs, robbery, and sexual assaults.
At the January 7 announcement, Farage warned that London faces a “crime wave run by foreign criminal gangs,” tarnishing the city’s global image. Despite Reform UK topping national polls since April 2025, it garnered only 8.7 percent in London’s 2024 general election and 3.2 percent for its prior mayoral candidate. Cunningham also vowed to scrap the Ultra Low Emission Zone if elected, aiming to rally voters disillusioned with both Labour and Conservatives.