Reform UK candidate vows to run London like 'Tokyo on steroids'

Laila Cunningham pledged to “embrace tech to the maximum” to solve the capital’s problems reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy

London will be run like “Tokyo on steroids” if Reform UK win the 2028 mayoral election, the party’s candidate has claimed.

Laila Cunningham, who was announced as the City Hall hopeful in January, said dealing with issues in the capital is currently “laborious” – and that technology should be used to streamline bureaucracy.

This would involve eliminating police paperwork to free up officers for frontline operations, automating the Tube network and using AI to streamline planning to boost housebuilding. The former Conservative councillor – who has become a high-profile figure in Reform following her defection last year – was laying out her plan to run London, should she win the election in 2028.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Cunningham said a Reform UK-led City Hall would “embrace tech to the maximum” to solve the capital’s most pressing issues.

Since being unveiled as the challenger to a fourth consecutive Labour term in two years’ time, the former Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor has been a constant critic of the mayor’s record on crime.

While Sir Sadiq Khan has boasted of his record in reducing violent crime – especially falls in knife crime and homicides in recent years – Cunningham claimed Londoners constantly feel “unsafe” and wary of being the victim of all sorts of offences.

“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.

“[The thought that] ‘I can’t have my phone out. I’m going to be mugged’ because he was in a certain part of London. That is not normal. That is not a safe city. And for me, there’s a freedom to feeling safe. There’s a freedom to be taking out your phone, wearing jewellery, a woman walking. We don’t have that freedom anymore. And that’s the freedom I grew up in.

“I’m not saying that London was a utopia that I grew up in, but I sure as hell knew that if I called the police, they would come and they would investigate. And now people don’t feel that.

“That perception comes from reality. People see, people know of someone who’s been a victim of crime – or they’ve been a victim of crime.”

She also joined critics in claiming that the mayor has been cherry-picking certain crime statistics to make the figures look good, adding that victims have stopped reporting thefts and other neighbourhood offences due to a lack of trust in the police.

To restore the relationship between communities in London and their local force, she has pledged to double the number of visible officers on the streets. She also vowed to reverse the Met Police’s controversial decision to shut down or reduce the hours of 24/7 police front counters across the capital, as well as doing a “day one” audit of how every police officer spends their time, including exploring how tech can be used to reduce paperwork.

On the latter, she criticised City Hall’s decision to block the Met’s planned contract with Palantir due to “serious concerns” over the procurement process. The firm has also faced criticism over its work with both the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

However, Cunningham said: “Our officers are bogged down in paperwork – it’s laborious and lengthy, but it can be modernised.

“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.

“I want London to be a safe city of the future – Tokyo on steroids.

“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. And that only comes from embracing technology and understanding that AI should give us not only more money back for your public services, but also time.”

Technology is also at the centre of her proposals on transport and housing which she says will help to transform London into a “safe, modern” city.

Cunningham claims that, as mayor, she would not allow transport unions to “hold London to ransom”, threatening to automate the London Underground instead to avoid strikes.

She also said that she would look to Hong Kong for inspiration on mass housebuilding near Tube stations and major transport hubs – at the moment, she claimed, the Mayor has “overregulated construction with green demands”.

The capital’s housing crisis, meanwhile, is also a planning crisis, the Reform UK candidate said.

“Planning takes years – one developer in Croydon waited seven years for permission,” she recalled. “Planning is ripe for AI – my strategy is build, build, build.”

Overall, she said her goal was to turn London from a city people “fear” to the one she “loved” growing up.

“London is my home. I’m born and bred here. I’ve made my life here, my career. I’m raising my kids here and I want my kids to love the city that I love. Right now, they are fearful of it. They don’t feel it has the opportunities that it should.

“Growing up, I want them to want to stay in the city. I want them to have the opportunities, the freedom and the safety that I had growing up.

“London is the best city in the world, and it should also be one of the safest cities in the world. And it should be a city full, brimming with opportunity for everyone. And it should work for the people that call it home.

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