Savitha Prakash, an NHS doctor and first-generation immigrant from India, is standing as a Reform UK candidate in the upcoming local elections in Harrow, north-west London. The 47-year-old, who chairs the party’s Harrow branch, says she sees similarities between Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arguing both leaders focus on putting the needs of the majority first.
Prakash, who moved to the UK from Mysore in 2003, said she has noticed significant changes in Britain over the years. “This was not the Britain I moved into. It looks more like regressing back to how things were in India,” she said. She criticised the Conservative Party for failing to deliver on its pledge to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and backs Reform UK’s plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and introduce stricter visa rules.
Research by the 1928 Institute, a group of Oxford academics, found that support for Reform UK among British Indians rose from 4% in 2024 to 13% in 2025. While still lower than the general population, the trend is upward. Prakash is leading a group of 55 Reform candidates in Harrow, where the 2021 census showed British Asians make up almost half the population.
Some local residents expressed sympathy with Reform UK’s stance on immigration. A 29-year-old waiter from Gujarat, who did not want to be named, said: “Asylum seekers, they get to stay in hotels where the government is paying for them … Their meals are taken care of and that’s our tax money that goes there. Whereas us, who [have] a legal status coming from a different country, wanting a better life, have to pay a lot of that.”
The local elections in Harrow are scheduled for 7 May. A YouGov poll suggested the Conservatives could win more than twice as many votes as any other party in the borough. Prakash, a former Conservative supporter, said the Tories “forgot what they came to power for”.
