Laila Cunningham, Reform UK's candidate for London Mayor in 2028, says she would run the capital like 'Tokyo on steroids', with technology at the heart of how City Hall works.
Cunningham, who was announced as Reform's City Hall hopeful in January, is a former Conservative councillor and Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor who defected to Reform last year. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she said a Reform-led City Hall would 'embrace tech to the maximum', and that dealing with issues in the capital is currently 'laborious'.
Her plans include eliminating police paperwork to free up officers for frontline work, automating the Tube network and using AI to speed up planning and boost housebuilding.
Crime and policing
Cunningham has been a regular critic of the mayor's record on crime. While Sir Sadiq Khan has highlighted falls in violent crime, especially knife crime and homicides in recent years, she argues Londoners feel 'unsafe'.
'The safety of the city is not defined by how many people are murdered,' she said. 'It's defined by how many people are raped, robbed and social behaviour. How many shops are suffering from theft, how many phone thefts are happening.'
She also joined critics who claim the mayor has been cherry-picking crime statistics, and said victims have stopped reporting thefts and other neighbourhood offences because of a lack of trust in the police.
Her pledges include doubling the number of visible officers on the streets, reversing the Met's decision to close or cut the hours of 24/7 police front counters, and a 'day one' audit of how every officer spends their time, including how tech could reduce paperwork.
On that point, she criticised City Hall's decision to block the Met's planned contract with Palantir over 'serious concerns' about the procurement process. The firm has also faced criticism over its work with the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cunningham said: 'Whether you agree with Palantir or not, I want to find the best tech provider to streamline paperwork so officers are out on the streets policing. AI and technology aren't necessarily going to take jobs; they make people more productive.'
Transport, services and housing
'I want London to be a safe city of the future – Tokyo on steroids,' she said. 'How many clicks does it take on the website to pay your Congestion Charge? If it's ten, I'm going to reduce it to five, and then I'm going to reduce it to two.'
She said she would not allow transport unions to 'hold London to ransom', threatening to automate the London Underground to avoid strikes.
On housing, she said she would look to Hong Kong for inspiration on mass housebuilding near Tube stations and major transport hubs, claiming the current mayor has 'overregulated construction with green demands'. She described the housing crisis as also a planning crisis: 'Planning takes years – one developer in Croydon waited seven years for permission. Planning is ripe for AI – my strategy is build, build, build.'
Why she's standing
Cunningham said her goal is to turn London from a city people 'fear' into the one she 'loved' growing up. 'London is my home. I'm born and bred here,' she said. 'I'm raising my kids here and I want my kids to love the city that I love.'
The next London mayoral election is in 2028, when voters in Walthamstow and across Waltham Forest will help decide who runs City Hall.
