Laila Cunningham has placed law and order at the centre of her campaign to become Reform UK's first Mayor of London, launching a direct challenge to Sadiq Khan's tenure. The 48-year-old Westminster City councillor brings extensive personal and professional experience to her pitch, having formerly worked as a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor.
From 'Vigilante Mum' to Political Candidate
Ms Cunningham's approach to crime is deeply personal. She was once labelled a 'vigilante mum' after she took matters into her own hands, tracking down and confronting balaclava-clad muggers who had targeted some of her seven children. She claims she was forced to act because police failed to help her family.
"I protected my family when the state couldn't," she said. "The press called me vigilante mum, but I should never have been put in that position." This frustration with what she describes as a surge in violent crime in the capital now fuels her political ambitions for the 2028 election.
An Unconventional Choice for Farage's Party
In several respects, Ms Cunningham is an atypical figure for Nigel Farage's right-wing party. She is a practising Muslim whose parents were migrants who fled Nasser's Egypt in the 1960s. She was born in West London and has a large, blended family.
Politically, however, her journey aligns with Reform's narrative. She was a Conservative Party member until the middle of last year, having won her Lancaster Gate council seat in 2022. She was originally due to be the Tory candidate for Rotherham at the 2024 general election before withdrawing. Her defection to Reform saw her join a group of female politicians dubbed 'Farage's Filies', known for their tough stance on law and order.
A Prosecution Career Cut Short by Politics
Ms Cunningham's move into frontline politics came at a cost to her legal career. She left her job at the Crown Prosecution Service in June last year after making a series of politically charged comments to a newspaper, announcing her shift to Reform UK. As a prosecutor, she was bound by strict Civil Service rules limiting political activity to maintain impartiality.
The CPS stated that she offered her resignation following the publication of her interview, and it was accepted. In that interview, she accused both Labour and the Conservatives of failing on crime, criticised net zero policies, and claimed political leaders had left Londoners "angry and frustrated".
Launching her mayoral campaign, she returned to her central theme, attacking Mayor Sadiq Khan's record since 2016. "It's a dereliction of duty that there's not more policing, more access to police, and that's what I want to see change," she asserted.
She reminisced about the London of the 1980s, describing it as a time when she felt safe walking the streets and knew her local police officer and teacher, who could then afford to live in the community. Nigel Farage and Reform UK are now pinning their hopes on Ms Cunningham to break Labour's 12-year grip on City Hall in the 2028 election.
