Lancaster Gate ward Cllr Laila Cunningham, left, who joined Nigel Farage’s ranks after defecting from the Conservatives

A WESTMINSTER councillor has been unveiled as Reform UK’s candidate for the 2028 mayoral election and the party’s figurehead for the council elections in May.

Lancaster Gate ward councillor Laila Cunningham, who joined Nigel Farage’s ranks after defecting from the Conservatives last year, said she would scrap the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) if elected.

Cllr Cunningham has cast herself as the “new sheriff in town” and proposes an “all-out war on crime, tackling knife crime, drugs, robbery, shoplifting, and rape” through a revamp of the Metropolitan Police’s priorities.

At a press conference Cllr Cunningham and Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage this week painted London as a once great city, suffering from a crime epidemic.

Cllr Cunningham said: “From now until May I will be spearheading our campaign, touring every borough. Because for the first time in years Londoners finally have a real alternative.

“These local elections will be a referendum on Sadiq Khan. On Labour’s broken London. One of the greatest cities on Earth is no longer safe, and that doesn’t happen by accident.

Cllr Cunningham pictured with Reform UK in Westminster

“Londoners need to know that the state of law and order in our city is his fault.”

It is not clear yet whether Sir Sadiq will stand again in the 2028 election race. It is also not clear whether Cllr Cunningham intends to contest her seat in Lancaster Gate in the council elections in May.

Cllr Cunningham, a former lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, defected from the Conservatives in 2025 after an unsuccessful campaign for a place on the Conservative list for the London Assembly.

In June 2025 she announced that the Conservative Party had “let the country down” and defected to Reform UK because they promised “lower taxes, controlled borders, and putting Britain first”.

Westminster Conservative group leader Paul Swaddle had criticised her on her departure for frequently being late or absent for committee meetings, and she was removed from her role on a planning committee.

Cllr Cunningham resigned from the CPS due to political comments being prohibited from this type of public sector role.

The Labour Party has said that electing Ms Cunningham as mayor would offer “the capital nothing but division and decline”.

Cllr Cunningham’s defection to Reform UK was followed by Westminster councillor Alan Mendoza, who switched to the party in November.