A Tory councillor in a flagship London borough is defecting to Reform UK as Nigel Farage eyes making inroads across London politics, The Standard can reveal.
Councillor Laila Cunningham, who represents Lancaster Gate on Westminster City Council, said she is quitting the Conservatives as she is “tired of defending failure”.
She branded a “dereliction of duty” that there are not more police officers in the capital to fight crime.
She also predicted a “massive surge” in Reform councillors in London after next year’s local elections, people who are “frustrated and they’re angry and they want to make a difference”.
The criminal lawyer, entrepreneur and mother-of-seven was welcomed by Mr Farage into the party as it tries to expand its appeal to more voters in London and beyond.
“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,” the Reform leader told The Standard.
“Clearly, there’ll be pockets in central London where we can do well. But I think the Outer Ring is very, very interesting.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Cllr Cunningham, in her mid-40s, told how she believes Reform, which has some 15,800 members in the capital, can make gains in both Inner and Outer London.
“I think come May, there’ll be many more Reform councillors,” she predicted.
“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 councillors.”
She even claimed the next Mayor of London could be Reform, which would be a seismic shift in the capital’s politics.
Cllr Cunningham, who was once dubbed “vigilante mum” after trying to track down muggers who had targeted her children, says crime is the number one issue in London.
“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,” she said.
She stressed further: “For me, I believe the country has lost its way. And I can say this also, you know, as a mother, I feel I can’t let my children out, especially I’ve got teenage boys. I worry about them every day on the streets.”
Born at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, she added: “Again, I grew up here, I never felt that. I can say that as a woman, I can say that as a Muslim, we have certain communities in this country that have totally destroyed the image of British Muslims. And that makes me very, very angry. And I want to defend British values and British rights.”
She believes both the Tories and Labour have failed on crime, as well as on controlling immigration, allowing a growing public sector, spiralling national debt and on the impact of net zero.
“I’m tired of defending failure. So, when I’m at the doorstep, speaking to residents, campaigning, I can’t defend the Conservatives anymore. I can’t defend the past 14 years,” she said.
She told how when her parents arrived in the UK from Egypt in the 1960s, they renovated properties and set up a small hotels business, and wanted to “embrace full Britishness, British values and British culture”.
Pressed whether she backs banning the burka in public, as advocated by some leading Reform figures, she said: “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?”
On the basis that it meant that people are not allowed to wear the burka in public, she added: “I don’t think you should have any face coverings in public.
“Rather than ban it, there should be guidance that when the police see you covering your face, that can be reason for stop and search and (that is) any face covering....”
Some politicians who defect then stand down to trigger a by-election to regain a mandate.
Had Cllr Cunningham considered doing so? “No, because my priorities for my residents have never changed. I’m responding to that priority,” she said.
With Reform facing accusations of “fantasy economics” with a series of promises costing tens of billions of pounds, did she believe the party’s sums add up?
“Have you ever looked at any manifesto and it adds up?” she responded, before saying she had not looked at the figures.
On whether she backs a third runway at Heathrow, she said: “No views for now.”
If Reform wins power in London councils, it would send in its DOGE (US-style Department of Government Efficiency) unit to cut costs.
A critic of the Online Safety Bill, she praised US Vice President JD Vance as “great,” adding: “He tells it how it is. I really do believe in freedom of speech.”
Asked to name three things she would like to change in London, she cites more police and “fair allocation of social housing” with families from London, with “roots in London prioritised”.
As for a third? “Make London Great Again.”
