THE anti-immigration Reform UK party on Wednesday (7) named Muslim businesswoman Laila Cunningham as its candidate to run in London's 2028 mayoral elections.
Reform leader Nigel Farage announced Cunningham, a former lawyer, as the party's pick to contest the post held since 2016 by current mayor Sadiq Khan.
Khan, a Labour party politician who became London's first Muslim mayor, has been fiercely criticised by the far-right over his policies, which often celebrate London's diversity and large immigrant population. He has not announced if he intends to run for a fourth term in office.
Born to Egyptian immigrant parents, 48-year-old Cunningham is Reform's first local councillor in London.
Cunningham would lead the party in an ambitious bid to win big in local elections in London in May, Farage said.
Reform could struggle to win over voters in the diverse, busy UK metropolis, despite growing popularity across other parts of the country.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Farage described Cunningham as "articulate... passionate" and "a mother".
Elected in the central borough of Westminster in 2022 as a Conservative, Laila Cunningham defected to Reform last year.
Born in the capital to parents of Egyptian origin who arrived in the UK in the 1960s, she called London the "greatest city in the world".
"But I am not blind to what it has become," she added, vowing there would be a "new sheriff in town".
Cunningham worked as a lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), but had to resign last year after making comments considered too politically partisan.
"People that come to London have to embrace British culture. You don't come to London expecting London to change for you," she said Wednesday.
She announced her priority would be to fight crime, arguing that London "is no longer safe" particularly for women, and attacking Khan's policies.
(AFP)
