Reform UK’s candidate for London mayor is starting as she means to go on – hammering her party’s message – hotly disputed – that the capital has become lawless under Labour’s Sir Sadiq Khan.
Laila Cunningham claims that shoplifting has become a “form of shopping” in some parts of London, that the “social fabric” has broken down between the public and the police, and that the sense of danger in some areas is reminiscent of 1980s New York.
Many question this, with debate raging on social media between those like Cunningham who paint a bleak picture of the capital, and others such as the television presenter Kirstie Allsop, who believe that accounts of “unsafe” London are hugely exaggerated.
Shorts
“The number of men losing the plot because I refuse to condemn London as an unsafe place to live and get about in is extraordinary,” Allsop said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this week. “I don’t feel unsafe.”
