Laila Cunningham - Reform UK candidate for Mayor of London | Reform Watch
Profile and accountability tracker for Laila Cunningham, Reform UK candidate for Mayor of London. Reform UK.
Role: Reform UK candidate for Mayor of London
Party: Reform UK
Recorded incidents (showing 1-8 of 8)
Laila Cunningham defended Reform and said filmed racist remarks should not define the party
Category: other
Laila Cunningham said Reform was being held to a higher standard than other parties, argued that racist remarks made by several filmed councillors should not be attributed to the whole membership and called for the same undercover methods to be used on other parties, while insisting people with racist views had no place in Reform. Secret recordings show elected party officials and activists using racist, Islamophobic, violent and sexist language. Several of the individuals filmed subsequently resigned, were suspended or were asked to leave the party and the party said investigations had commenced and that there was no room for racism; Cunningham’s defence that a small number of councillors do not represent the wider membership contrasted with those resignations and suspensions and with the scope of the recordings.
Laila Cunningham unable to explain Reform UK's own social housing policy in GB News interview
Category: factual inaccuracy
Location: London
Interviewed on GB News about Reform UK's newly announced social housing policy, Laila Cunningham denied that it would prioritise married couples, despite the party's deputy leader Richard Tice having said days earlier that it would. The policy would prioritise married couples with children and British workers under 35, bar people with indefinite leave to remain from accessing social housing, and place unemployed people further down waiting lists. Pressed on the consequences for pensioners and single parents, Cunningham said "vulnerable people will always go to the top of the list", which the interviewer pointed out was not what the published policy said. The exchange followed a run of interviews in which she was unable to set out her party's positions, including a TalkTV appearance in July 2026 in which she declined to answer a question on Reform's defence policy.
Laila Cunningham defends Nigel Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift
Category: undisclosed interest
Laila Cunningham, a Reform UK councillor, defended Nigel Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift during appearances on LBC and later on her own slot on the same station. She said it was not the public’s business how he spent his money, suggested the payment could have been for security and told listeners they should not interrogate him over the sum, while admitting she did not know whether the money had been spent on security. Nigel Farage has contradicted the security explanation. Critics have raised concerns about his failure to declare the payment as a registrable parliamentary benefit after becoming an MP and about a possible transactional relationship linked to promoting crypto. There is no public record here of any disciplinary action against Cunningham in relation to her defence of Farage.
Laila Cunningham claimed Britain has let Islamists "thrive" and called for a halt to legal migration
Category: inflammatory language
Location: London
In an interview broadcast in May 2026, Laila Cunningham claimed that the United Kingdom had allowed Islamists to thrive because of political correctness, and called for a halt to legal migration, describing the position as "absolutely necessary" to restore public services, wages and social cohesion. She used the interview to defend her earlier position that women wearing the burqa should be stopped and searched. Campaigners have argued that framing migration and British Muslims in these terms fuels hostility towards minority communities in London, the most diverse city in the country, and that the claims were presented without supporting evidence.
Laila Cunningham failed to declare shareholding in a hotel in her own borough for nearly four years
Category: undisclosed interest
Location: Westminster, London
The Local Democracy Reporting Service found that Laila Cunningham had not declared her 5 per cent shareholding in Plaza Continental Hotels Limited, which owns a hotel in Bayswater, for almost the entire time she served as a Westminster City councillor. She added the interest to her register only after being contacted by reporters in February 2026. Under the Localism Act, elected members must disclose any beneficial interest in a business operating in their area within 28 days of taking office. Failure to do so can be a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to £5,000 and disqualification from office for five years. A spokesperson for Cunningham said she takes no benefit from the stake, which she said was gifted to her as a child, and that it therefore did not need to be declared. She denies any wrongdoing. Westminster City Council was understood to be looking into the matter.
Laila Cunningham condemned over burqa stop and search remarks and "Muslim city" comments
Category: discriminatory remark
Location: London
Laila Cunningham said that women wearing the burqa should be subject to police stop and search, telling The Standard's podcast: "It has to be assumed that if you're hiding your face, you're hiding it for a criminal reason." She said she would look to ban face coverings if she could, and offered no evidence for the assumption of criminality. She also said parts of London "feel like a Muslim city", citing signs in other languages and burqas sold in markets, and said there should be "one civic culture" which "should be British". Muslim organisations and politicians condemned the remarks. Baroness Shaista Gohir, crossbench peer and chief executive of the Muslim Women's Network UK, called them "dangerous" and a "dog whistle" to racists, and said her charity had removed signage and staff photographs from its offices after a sharp rise in abusive and threatening messages. Critics said the comments risked exposing Muslim women to hostility and police suspicion on the basis of their dress.
Companies linked to Laila Cunningham struck off after failure to file legally required documents
Category: financial conduct concern
Location: London
Days after being unveiled as Reform UK's candidate for Mayor of London, it emerged that several companies linked to Laila Cunningham had been struck off by Companies House after failing to file legally required documents. Kitchin Table Ltd, jointly owned and directed by Cunningham and her husband, was dissolved in August 2024 following compulsory strike-off action. MGIC Ltd, of which she was a director, was struck off in August 2023. Failing to file company accounts is a criminal offence under UK law, although prosecution is rare and strike-off is the more common outcome. Cunningham told Times Radio she "didn't break companies' law". The reporting raised questions about the business record of a candidate campaigning on competence and law and order.
Laila Cunningham resigned as a Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor after politically charged remarks
Category: ethics violation
Location: London
Laila Cunningham resigned from her post as a Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor in June 2025, days after making a series of politically charged public statements while defecting from the Conservative Party to Reform UK. Prosecuting lawyers are bound by civil service rules restricting political activity that could be seen to compromise impartiality. The CPS confirmed her resignation had been offered and accepted. It is understood she would have been likely to face a disciplinary process had she remained in post. Cunningham has said she was called in for a meeting after her remarks were published.