"We're Governed By Cowards" - Reform Candidate For London Mayor - Laila Cunningham

I've seen my city change. And particularly let's look at crime. Crime is rampant in my world. Every crime metric is actually through the roof. I just feel Londoners don't feel the police have their back. I'm socially contired of being divided. You know, they're very good at dividing us. I think we've been led by political cowards. London has largest number of illegal migrants housed in hotels. Do you think they see us as weak from the I think they see us as suckers?

I go to to certain parts of of London. It doesn't really feel like a British city. My parents are Muslim, they didn't move to London to find uh uh some some Egyptian village. They've lost faith in democracy, they've lost faith in party politics, and they've lost faith in politicians. And that is a very dangerous place for society to be in. This is it. This is we're drinking in the last chance to lose This episode is sponsored by Avocado Green Matter.

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standing uh to be the mayor of London for reform. Uh welcome to trigonometry. Thank you. Thanks for having me. We will talk about all the political stuff in a second, but actually you're someone who's got a very interesting story. Uh so tell us a little bit about who you are and how you find yourself sitting here. W well have that's a long story. Uh I'm born and raised in London all my life. Um I went to play basketball in California for a while.

um and then went to Cairo uh for a y two years at university to check it out. But mainly I'm born and raised in London and I love it. Um, and you know, I've watched my city change and that's upset me. Uh, I've watched it change in so many different ways actually. Um, and I feel like I'm not gonna let it succumb to crime, I'm not gonna let it succumb to woke ideology, I'm gonna Fight back for my city and that's how you find me here.

Yeah. Well t tell us more about your story'cause you kinda skipped over, you said it's a long story, but actually it's really relevant and interesting in in terms of all the stuff that we now talk about. Right. Uh so you're you're a mother of seven, I think five of them are yours and you got two step kids.

Uh used to play basketball professionally? S so my dream was to play professionally. Uh and I thought, you know, when I went to America I thought I'd kill it. But actually'cause I'm quite tall for uh you know, someone in Britain but actually I was quite short in the US. I don't know what they feed.

women there. And uh, you know, my parents wanted me back. They didn't want me all the way in California. So I went to play there, but then I wanted to come back I came back here. Um and the way basketball works is that if you're not willing to get injured You're not a good player. So when my teens, I was... I was...

I'd go for it, you know, strong defender, I'd go for the basket. Um but n you know, as you got older and injury just took longer, y you become a less better player and I'm quite competitive on the pitch, on the court. Um and so I was playing kind of in a in this league and then I popped my Achilles in my twenties. And after that it was such a long, tedious recovery. In fact it's still kinda there. Um I kinda gave up on it sadly.

But but, you know, my first when I became a counsellor, I went to teach in local in my local school. Uh I love basketball because what basketball taught me actually, it was a really important lesson was teamwork. And I find that You don't only rely on your team for so many things, but also you can't let your team down. So if someone, you know, we had a teammate who smoked cigarettes, you'd be like,

Christ's sake, please stop smoking because you're so breathless you can't run down the court. You know, and y you learnt that it's not only about you, your actions, you know. if you're part of a team have consequences for others. Perfect setup for politics, huh? Yeah, yeah. You know, some politicians are in it for themselves. Oh really? Shocking. Shocking. Um and so why did you decide to get into politics?

I you know what, it was just a natural progression. Um I've always been involved in polit um interested in politics. You know, as I said I was uh my my other siblings, my elder sister's twenty years older than me. Mm. She was actually the a doctor when I was being born in the same hospital. Um so I was really the last with my mum and my mum really didn't watch a lot of TV except the news.

So I grew up watching the news. I used to c I remember I used to plait her hair as we'd watch, you know, news at ten, spacing image. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. Rydyn ni'n amlwg. And I was acutely aware of the effects that different political leadership can have on people's lives. And um

Yeah, it was just it was always a natural progression. You know, I I went to work at the CPS at some point in my life and I realised, gosh, there's so much that needs to be changed. Um, so I gave them some free legal advice and then I just, you know, volunteered and it was a natural progression and then they were looking for candidates and crime was really rampant in my area and I'm like, for God's sake, you know, how can we do something about it?

um and said, you know what, I'll I'll run and and try and make my area crime free. Uh and I became uh you know, I was known as a crime fighting counselor. Um and I f I you know, I I I said I'm gonna try and really do something with this and so I held, you know, the first public meeting between the police and residents'cause you find there is a disconnect between the police and residents. Where they could actually hear from the police what they're doing'cause they do do good work.

And the p and they can tell them the issues. And then I set up different WhatsApp groups where I would feed intel from the residents to the police, you know. You know, sometimes at four o'clock you have a dodgy car outside your window and you know it's dealing drugs, but you can't really call nine nine nine. They'd feed me those license plates and actually, you know, we managed to kind of break up some organized crime uh operations in the area. Um

I went after criminals myself. I wouldn't advise anyone to do that. You know, there were a bunch of uh Roma gypsies that would particularly come to the area. Uh they'd have the women there.

who would who would beg for money and the men would come all dress nicely and follow people and unzip their po you know, their bags. And so I would film them and say, Listen, I'm with the police, uh I'm the councillor here. I don't want to see you here. I know what you're doing I asked the police to do an undercover operation and catch them, and they did.

So in and that was my council work in terms of getting crime down in my area. And and and as I was telling you before, crime is rampant in my ward. Um I had, you know, people were sending me literal photos of people hiring a prostitute and having sex in their courtyard, in their building on their way to school to take their children to school.

uh I had another one in a in a beautiful muse where the drug dealer would set up shop, you know, at about one PM in the afternoon, set up a whole s set up a clinic. So and I had videos of this where the w where the the drug dealer the drug addict would come, he'd be injured. uh the drug addict the drug dealer would help heal him, give him drugs, all this in you know, in front of a C C T D n no no shame in their game because there are no police.

Um and all this was happening and I I couldn't believe it. I had one truck um that was inhabited by two foreign guys and they were running a brothel at night from it. So, you know, I would tell the council, please can we

do something about it and they'd be like, Well, you know, they pay their tickets, we don't really tow. And the police would be like, Well, you know, it's a council matter because they're paying their tickets and we haven't had any uh complaints of illegal activity. It was just back it was infuriating. And so yeah, that's but that was when I became a counsellor. But I kinda started seeing all these things and I said, Well, maybe I can run and try and do something about it.

Saleila, I'm really excited to have you on because we get to talk about London. I'm a Londoner, I've been a Londoner for all my life, forty three years. Where from? Uh South London near Morden. So not the best. No, I like that. Okay. Right. Oh you're a South London boy, I'm annoying. Yeah.

But I've seen my city change and you've said that. So let's actually talk about it. What does it mean that the city's changed? And particularly let's look at crime. Because if you ask the average Londoner, they wouldn't be able to say, Oh Stats have gone up by this percentage or that percentage, whatever else. But we all feel it's a very different city.

Yeah, we do feel it's a different CC. And th th the the thing is, um so when I announced my candidacy to be mayor, you know, Sadiq Khan came out of hiding finally, all guns blazing, saying that actually homicide rates are down. Homicide rates is the only stat that has gone down and knife crime's up by si 68% in the past ten years. Um a rape is reported every hour.

um uh we are going through a robbery epidemic, you know, all every crime metric is actually through the roof. Shoplifting is literally a form of shopping. uh, robbery, knife crime, um, everything. Um and what's really upsetting to hear, I think even more than that, is that the charge rate, the amount of offences that end up in a charge,

Apart from homicide, which is obviously ninety-five percent because you can't really ignore a dead body um is six percent. So ninety-four percent of victims in the city do not even get a look in. Right. And I actually spoke to a lady who was raped.

Um and she told me that the police said we're not gonna investigate and I actually emailed the police for her and said, Why aren't you why aren't you putting this to charge? And they said because she was smiling on the CCTV before she went up to his house.

And I s they said we are not confident this were the words that a jury would convict and I said you are not to act as judge and jury but that's what's going on. They are so focused on metrics, so focused on getting convictions that they are not

putting things to charge and that is the police. I said, are you not even going to send it to the CPS to charge? And they said no. And the CPS is a crime prosecution service. Yeah. So what normally happens, and I was a senior crime prosecutor in London. And what normally happens is The police collect all the evidence and they submit it to the Crown Prosecution Service to if it's deemed worthy of a charge. They don't, they're not even doing that.

Um and that's what I wanna change. I I just feel Londoners don't feel the police have have their back. You know I I honestly speak to s small supermarkets who tell me that the police are screening their calls. You know

They don't answer their calls anymore because they're calling every half an hour. So now they and I'm sure you've seen this in supermarkets where they have a who's who of who's robbing, who's coming to steal from their from their shop because they feel they have to do it themselves. the social contract between the police and the state and the re and the people is broken because

The only thing you can't provide privately for yourself is the police, right? Not everything else you can if you've got the money do it. And that's I think that is why it's its first it's the government's first duty and they fail. And how much of that because look, I'm all for blaming Sadiq Khan, right, let's be honest. But how much of that is actually Sadiq Khan's fault? And how much of that look, I talk to Coppers all the time.

Uh you only have to mention the words Teresa and May together and they all collectively blow a gasket because of the way the police was defunded and the cut. So how much can we really appropriate to Sadiq Khan and how much of this is just cuts that have happened to the police service generally? So let's break it down. So after 2008, after the financial cr crash, the criminal justice system did take the biggest hit.

um in terms of uh lack of funding. And they did cut policing. Um and what Sadi uh Theresa May did even worse was that she really politicized Stop and Search. and said it was targeting um certain ethnic uh communities more and that We had to stop we had police forces had to reduce it and you know, on any data you know that stop and search prevents knife crime because you remove that knife from the person before they've committed the

The offence. So that is true. They shut a lot of magistrates' courts down, which in case your viewers don't know all criminal proceedings in this country start in the magistrates and then if it does go up to the crown. So they cut them all. So for instance, I was a senior Crown Prosecutor about, you know, ten years ago in Surrey, in Guildford, and I worked, you know,

Rydyn ni'n ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud. And so number one, people from other parts of Surrey don't have representation in the magistrates. Victims have to travel a very long way to go to the magistrates. And there has been a lack of focus on keeping people safe. Um so that is that one. And then in terms of Sadiq Khan, he is the police and crime commissioner and he sets the budget.

He sets the priorities and he sets the direction. So he actually, it all the blame lies at him. And he also appoints the police and crime commissioner with the approval of the Home Secretary. But He set, you know, he created a a specialist unit to fight hate crime. Right? While violent crime was going up, um, women were getting raped. He set up a uh a unit to fight work.

which he does very well, you know, he's very good with these identity politics. But that that's not what matters to people. We're not interested in division. We're interested in unity'cause we all we all suffer the same problem. and I think people want him to police violent crime as opposed to words.

And I think one of the most frustrating things as a Londoner is obviously violent crime is awful, but it's simple things like you're walking outside Vauxhall Station, which is a major trains and tube station. It's a major transportational hub. And you just see the kids with their faces covered, dressed all in black, the hoodie, and you know and you see for yourself they go around nicking phones and you're going, Where is the police? Where are the police? Well

So, my kids were targeted by those masked youth gangs. And, you know, you can't... And I prosecuted people in masks, by the way. It's very difficult to prove. So you go on clothes, you go on evidence that it's not a hundred percent and you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed it. So it does provide a cloak of anonymity and a protective cloak of anonymity against consequences.

Um, in fact last you know, I said one of my main policies I'd want the police if you are covering your face. Rydyn ni'n ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud. You know, and it has to be indiscriminate. If you cover your face in an open society, um that has to be a reason for stop and search because the rest of us are suffering.

And then they want to bring in facial recognition, right? Labour has said across the country, what's the point if people are if they don't ban face cover? if they don't make face coverings or reasons for stop and search because you and I, the normal person, we're gonna be tracked for life, right? Tracked uh and criminals won't.

And that's that's a really good point because you look at the way things are going in London and you look like you said, I was in Finsbury Park recently, I saw people going to a pretemonger and quite literally stealing and walking out. And we were talking before this recording started about California, where it seems theft has been legalised. And I'm seeing the same thing happen to London. Yeah, I mean I i so so I was um so what happens?

I I I was a senior crime prosecutor, right? And we did a lot of theft obviously in the courts. And what happens is Prosecutor. Prosecutor, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. And uh misread that And what happens is someone comes in, right, and they've stolen a bunch of stuff. Th the punitive element of it is almost removed because they try and look at the offender. Oh, you know, he's a drug addict, he's trying to fund his alcohol addiction, he's trying to fund his drug addict. What can we do for him?

it almost takes a back it i it i it goes it go it goes it's not prioritized. So you're like, Oh, you know what, I I I robbed it because I have a drug addict. So they're like, you know what, let's get you into a drug programme and probation. Let's see what we can do. And then I remember I once stood up And I said, hang on, you know, uh he he hit a security guard. And security guards are never and they're like, okay, you know what, we'll give the security guard 50 pounds compensation.

Exactly. Exactly that. It's insulting. It is insulting. It's insulting. Right. And then people you you do hear the police and politicians say, well, you know, security guards need to do their work. You know, they need why should they? um, because they don't feel the courts have their back when it does come to prosecution. Um, but on the flip side we do have a fundamental problem in this country where

A lot a big section of criminals are not really criminals, they're drug addicts. And I think you probably have the same in California. And some of them come in the dock, some of them are veterans. and they say, I beg you, I don't want to be here, help me. You know, and it's heartbreaking because there is no tool to help them. What happens is you're like, okay, you're a drug addict. We're gonna give you a drug rehabilitation order.

That might sound effective, but all it means is I think, you know, speaking to probation or an alcohol rehabilitation. They come in and they're like, Have you drank today? They're like, No, have you had drugs today? And they leave, right? And this is my personal opinion, it's not it's not reform policy, but you would almost want a prison that's like the Priory. You know, where you do not leave until you are clean.

And they'd love that. It's very hard to get pure drug rehabilitation on the NHS. I know'cause a friend of mine has a son who who who had it, she had to send him to Thailand, it was so expensive. And I think that could reduce a lot of the petty crime you see.

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I mean w this is one of the big challenges I think in policy. We're s sort of going in a direction I didn't expect. But I think no, no, but it's this is good because it kinda shows that you've got some original ideas, which I think is really great for f when you're talking to political candidates. Because Francis and I have talked for a long time about the fact that treating drug

addiction as a crime. Rightly or wrongly, moral, blah, blah, blah, aside, it just doesn't work in practical terms. And if you could treat people for their drug addiction. Portugal, for example, has done some good work on this. Right. You'd find you're solving the actual problem as opposed to, you know, th one of the problems obviously we have is we don't have enough prison places.

And that's partly'cause y there's some people who really need to be in prison for a very long time, far, far longer than they go in there now.

But there's also a lot of people that are ending up there who've just got a drug problem and if they could get that help and get help with that and then be able to be reintegrated into society, we'd address a lot of those issues. So why why isn't that a reform position?

Well I think there's costings involved. We haven't we haven't discussed it. Obviously policy is being is being drawn out. Um but I do think that you're you're right. You know, if you address Some root cause they're just criminals and they're just horrible people that need to be put in prison. Others, you know, it really is a drug addiction through circumstances of life.

You know, I speak to some veterans who say after you know they got PTSD they they they did become drug addicts. And number one that for me that's that that's shameful, you know, the the fact that The fact that our veterans are not put on a pedestal and treated like kings is is a blemish on any country. Um but yeah, they d they deserve help to stop to stop it as opposed to this roundabout of going to prison, going to prison and you know, they go to prison for a day here or a day there.

stopping drug addiction. Yeah. Uh I don't know exactly what their latest policy is, but I but I think uh it's refreshing to hear because I think In this country in particular, there's this sort of thing about being perceived as being soft on drugs by talking about the things that we're talking about. Whereas what we're really talking about is pragmatic solutions to to actual problems. W who who really are vulnerable victims, I think, sometimes. And you have the drug dealers.

Right. And and that's what we need to go hard on are the drug dealers. A and like you say, you know, they'll serve half their time or they'll deal drugs within within prison and th that's what you need to go after a lot. And I know for instance that a lot of

Candy shops, souvenir shops across London, they are dealing drugs. And they're not being shut down. They're not being shut down by the council. They're not being shut down by the police. There is a massive proliferation of these kind of shops. And you've got to ask yourself, they're in central London, how are they affording rent? There's no one in there. I mean just in my area. I mean there's th th all all all all the high streets full of it.

Um and so I think we have to have I don't feel there is a coordinated police emergency unit to deal with the massive proliferation of of drug dealing. It it does kind of feel like across the country now, but in London I think it's more noticeable than anywhere. There's just a toleration of crime. There just is. Yeah. And and w what you find with the two other parties is it can no longer be business as usual. Right now it's every party is like business as usual with a little tweak.

It has to be a fundamental change. I mean my my teenagers are approached regularly, just when they're in their school uniform, guy in a covert mask, gives them a card with just a mobile phone number, any drugs you want. You know, from the age of thirteen they're given. You know, and and he lists it, you know, ketamine, coke I mean, people don't realise actually, uh I had to prosecute a lot of like delivery drivers.

who also deal drugs, you know, and and a bag of Coke is like five pounds now. Remember it used to be like for the for for the rich bankers. Uh it's actually so cheap and easy to get all across London. And and no one's dealing with that. No one's dealing with actually breaking these kind of organised crime that has Kids in private schools, state schools all doing drugs.

And uh you mentioned delivery drivers. I mean one of the things that anyone who's ordered a delivery in London has experienced is the person who turns up is not the person on the on the app who's who it's supposed to be. And that's we know that's illegal immigrants buying identities to then use within deliveries. Right. How much of an issue is illegal immigration in London in your opinion?

I think illegal immigration is a massive issue. Number one, London has the ho uh largest number of illegal migrants housed in hotels. The government likes to call it asylum seekers, but they entered this country illegally. Um And they are illegal migrants. Just because you say the word asylum, it doesn't kind of neutralise the fact that you enter the country illegally. And London has the largest share. You know, where we saw uh um

a murder of the guy walking his dog in Uxbridge. Uxbridge actually uh Hillingdon has the largest amount in hotels. And what's really sad is that you have Londoners whose kids uh can't afford to live in London, right? And yet they're working in London but they can't afford it, are paying taxes for these people to stay in the hotels in the city that they can't afford to stay in themselves.

So illegal migration a has a huge effect. We've even got you know, now we have councils. So what the way it works is you're an asylum seeker and then when you're granted asylum, you're deemed a refugee. And what we know is that the approval rate for certain dem for certain countries is over ninety percent. You know, Somali, Ethiopia, I don't have the facts here, but it's a very high approval rating. So you what happens is you come on a boat

You're an illegal entrant, you say the word asylum, this magic word, uh it's like open sesame. Uh it neutralizes illegal entry. uh you're deemed an asylum seeker and you get all the benefits paid for by the British taxpayer. You're put in a four star hotel, it's you know uh and then your claim is

again, all that public resources is granted, you become a refugee and you go to the top of the housing list in London. Because successive legislation Theresa May's one of them, has said that you cannot discriminate for social housing on the basis of nationality. It's quite an extraordinary thing. Extraordinary if you think about it, so I'm an immigrant, uh your parents were immigrants, Francis' mother came here as well.

I I have never understood why it is that anyone who is not a British national should get access to any benefits whatsoever. But also if you're not prioritised in your own country, wh where are you supposed to be prioritized? Right. If your parents aren't gonna love you unconditionally

Who is? Right. So so uh it it is it is it is shocking. And also when they say discriminate against nationality, fine. Put foreigners in that in that bracket. But British people of course should be prioritised and that's not discrimination. if you flip it, discrimination is actually prioritizing the people who built this

Wait, so are are you in principle okay with foreign nationals getting benefits? No, you're not. No, I don't think foreign nationals should get any benefits. Yeah, they do. Of course not. Right. Um why? I I have no idea. productivity in the public sector, so you gotta ask why no, I I don't think so. Um and and as it stands, British people are not being prioritised for social housing in this city and

I I I actually make it actually makes me angry. Um because again, where are you supposed to you know, I I speak to people who who are like Their son is on number four hundredth on the list. But someone who's just arrived doesn't speak English. Gets a three bedroom house for free. Um and then if you quit if you say that, you're racist, by the way. Which I did. I said at one of the council meetings I was called racist.

Um so I think I think that there has to be I think we've been led by political cowards. You know, political cowards who have been voted in to represent British people but have been too cowardly to do so. You know what's interesting? And I'm sure you know this uh you you you have

uh you've travelled uh extensively abroad. It's funny, in this country if you say that you're you might be called racist by some people, if you tell people in any other country that in Britain we actively discriminate against our own population in favor of foreigners They all think we're crazy. Everyone around the world thinks what we're doing is insane. I know. I know they do and they think

They also think how do we put up with it? Yeah. You know, and what wha what is the what is the aim? Um and that but I think that's why reform's doing so well, you know, and that that that's why I think people are like I'm so sick and tired of being put on the on the back uh on the back. I'm so sick and tired of being divided. You know, they're very good at dividing us as well.

Um and I think that's why reform's doing so well, because we're unashamedly for British people. You know, I was unasha I I don't feel when I say London's changed as well. I go to to certain parts of of London and it doesn't really feel like a British city. It really doesn't. It doesn't feel it feels more like a a

Muslim city in some areas, you know. And and if you go to Whitechapel, that feels like a Muslim city. That doesn't feel like London. No, it doesn't. And I speak to people who are from there who have moved out because they feel, you know, they grew up there, they feel they've been eradicated. You know, th their way of life, their values have been eradicated and They've got burqa markets in town hamlets. Listen, I I could do my parents are Muslim and and but they didn't move for that.

uh uh some some Egyptian village in London. No. They moved to London because it is the capital of the United Kingdom and everything that Great Britain represents. And I don't feel the capital city represents that anymore. And I feel we've lost that identity.

And Yeah. And what what can you do about that though? Well, the mayor doesn't really have any control over social housing, but you know, he has failed to build so much housing. And I'd like to see more prof m ha pe British workers have been priced out of London. So I'd like to see you know, he has a huge mandate to build so many homes.

You know, he has failed to build on all the brownfield sites that he could. He gets a huge allocation from local government uh central government to build. He hasn't. Um for instance, there's a lot of industrial sites in London. That really house very low wage, low skilled work. And because of labor ideology, that you know, you can't take this from workers. He has the power to make that into homes. He hasn't.

Um, and that's why you find people and the demographics, because there's such a big social housing and so many refugees are housed in London. in certain parts of London and peop British people who work in London can no longer afford to live here, you've found an influx of foreigners who don't really wanna live in a British who wanna live in Britain but don't wanna live in Britain, if you know what I mean.

Um and British people are priced out of of the UK. I mean you remember London. I I remember growing up in London, Hackney was so cool. Do you remember it was all the artists? Yeah. Yeah, it was the murder capital, but you know, we kinda put up with that. You go see studios, it was cool. You know, I find

that kind of coolness to London's gone. You know, there's no independent shops on the high street. No. It's all the it's I it's either candy shops, vape shops, but you don't get little cool boutiques or Yeah, coffee shops have proliferated. I actually did the math. I think it's a massive markup on coffees. Uh so I get that. But that that that eclectic element to London, I find has changed. Universities are a bad deal.

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Uh, there's a lot of people who haven't heard about this. You work for the Crown Prosecution Service. What are David Lamy's plans and why are they, in my opinion, so egregious? So as your viewers I don't know if your viewers know, but we create the Magna Carta created trial by jury, you know, to be to be tried by twelve of your peers because let's face it, the judge is state is is is part of the state, prosecutors part of the state.

The only part of the judicial system that is really not part of the state is the jury. It protects you against the state. And in this country we do have a magistrate system where up to twelve months you there is no jury. But you do have a bench from lay people mainly, uh which is kind of like a mini jury. Um

And what he's saying is that to to reduce the backlog, he's gonna remove jury trials. What he really is removing is People's power, you know, because right now what they've also done and a lot of those three year trials where you get a three year conviction is when you say hateful content, you know, uh look at people who've been prosecuted after the Southport trials. And what you found is when it has been a a jury, they've acquitted them in five minutes.

because they're like it's ridiculous. Um and when you have had a judge they've had a very, very harsh penalty. So they're almost they're they're upping uh the the The chance of you being prosecuted for something they don't like you saying and they're removing the protection from you being acquitted. And it's draconian, but it's all a form of control. You know, they don't they don't trust the people. Um and they even said actually that in fraud cases

The jury's too stupid, so they shouldn't be they shouldn't be on the panel. But the jury consists of people like you and me, who've had families, who've had businesses, who've run a household, who've had and they bring a wealth of life experience that a judge doesn't.

And actually what they found is it during fraud cases, the jury actually had very clever questions, very clever notes. But this just it's an authoritarian regime that doesn't trust the people and wants to control every outcome. That's why they're bringing in facial recognition without removing face coverings. It's all an excuse. It's it's a guise. Um and when you when you lose, I think rights, fundamental rights, under the guise of safety or convenience or expedient. you end up with neither.

Now, David Lamy would go, Well hang on a moment, Leila, because of COVID, we now have cases that have years to be what you victims have to wait years to get their moment in court. And these are very serious crimes. These pe they s this this is suffering. These people are waiting years, literal years for things like rape, murder

Whatever. And it's not acceptable. This is a policy that the government is doing. We're gonna streamline it and we're gonna ensure that people get their day in court and victims get justice. What's wrong with that? Because th the judicial system only works.

fair and reliable, not if it favors the state. And when you remove jury trials, it will it will invariably favour the state and the government. You can't you can't remove people's fundamental rights for expediency. That's it's not it's not our fault. That there's a backlog. That's the government's fault. They have to sort it out. And you know what's happened is, and I go back to hate crime because it's a real bugbear of mine. So you have magistrates' uh trials which if you've

Let's say I hit you, right? Just push you. That's an assault. It's quite a minor thing. It goes to the magistrates. Magistrates are very quick. If I hit you and call you with a racial slur, it becomes an either way offence and the criminal can then pick Crown Court. Right. And the the and he invariably picked trial in court because of the massive delay. So then the victim pulls out, he's got three years, it's not an imprisonable offence, he's on bail, he can relax.

And that is a huge part of the backlog is that they've made minor offences into more serious offences if they're racially or religiously aggravated. And that has to go back to the magistrate. It it it's a huge backlog and it's it's they've really prioritized words over violent action.

So that being the case, what is reform's policy? How would you sort out this huge backlog that we now have in the Crown Prosecution Service? I'd have Crown Courts sitting in the weekend. You know, you clear the backlog, just like we did in in the Southport trials. You clear the backlog, you have Crown court in the weekends. Um, you reduce you you all the minor offenses that are racially or religiously aggravated go back to the magistrates.

Um and that's how you clear it. But you don't clear it. You never clear it by removing people's rights. That's not what a government does. And it wasn't even in their mandate. You know, they're bringing in incrementally more and more state control.

without ever asking us to vote on it. If they really believe that was the case, then we should have voted on it. And I I can guarantee most people wouldn't. So there's a lot of people going, Well what type what do you mean by state control? Give it give me give me some examples. What is the Labour government doing to bring in state So they're bringing in a digital ID? Right. Initially they said it would be to so illegal migrants couldn't work uh uh and then they realised that didn't wash because

Yeah. They're like, oh well hang on, we try that for a week or two. Obviously you can get away you can get around with it. I mean, you know, if I'm hiring an illegal migrant, I'm not like give me your documents. If you don't have your documents, I'm not hiring you. Weak argument. And then they actually said that it was gonna be easier to buy a house.

Right. And then that didn't wash. And now they're saying, you know, I don't know, it's just so you can have all initially they said, you know, so you couldn't work without getting it. And now it's so you can get all your benefits. And what happens is when you have a centrally controlled digital platform

that dispenses all your rights, that you now treat as rights, they will become privileges on the basis of you behaving. You know, oh you didn't you didn't you said something against the government last year. We're not sure if you're allowed this. You didn't pay your HMRC tax because you're in dispute. Until you pay it, you're not going to be allowed to get an NHS appointment.

All the rights I think that we deem now as rights will become privileges on the basis of us behaving. No one asked again for this central uh control of of everything we do. Why wasn't it in the mandate? Why wasn't it in their manifesto?

I mean i the election was just fourteen months ago. Let's look at how m they're cancelling they're cancelling tri uh they're cancelling elections for four million people, six million people. On what basis? On reorganisation. You reorganise after the election, you don't reorganise before. By the way, it reforms polling to win every single one of those elections and those nine mayoral positions as well.

This is a government that doesn't trust the people. It only it it it's a status government. It's a socialist state. They believe in a bigger, bigger state and they reward dependency. I mean you've seen it in their in their budget. Well The more you're dependent on the state

For welfare. That's what they're relying on. They're relying on to grow the pie of people on welfare. Because the if enough people are on welfare, they're always going to vote for more government intervention. But my pushback to that is Leila, yeah, but you can carry on doing that. Eventually we're gonna go bankrupt. And let's be honest, this country is pretty close to

to put it bluntly, going fucking broke. Yeah, of course we are. Because they they the also debt finally matters, right? Before debt didn't matter'cause it was at zero percent, but debt f it's not ch it's not free anymore. Um But they they don't believe in that. They just want more and more people the more you're reliant on the state, it's like you're reliant on drugs, you're reliant on a drug addict, right? They want to get you hooked. Once you're hooked,

on welfare, you'll vote for them for life. They don't want you to own anything. They don't want you to make money. That th that that's what they're betting on. They don't they're not rewarding risk. They're not rewarding people who are working. They don't care about that. And how is reform gonna fix all this? Because it's uh I look I agree with you a hundred percent about hooking people on welfare, but getting people off drugs.

Pretty hard as we've discussed. How are you gonna unhook Britain off off the welfare? Well right now we have so w y you You s in some cases you earn more on welfare than you do working. Um and you know, we have imported so much foreign cheap labour that s wages have become stagnant since two thousand and eight. So you're like, what the hell am I working for? I'm not getting anything and there's no reward. Sorry, I can't own a home. It's like ten times my salary.

So I think you have to make wages go up. And the way you make wages go up is that you stop importing foreign cheap labor, you encourage the businesses to open. You know, we're number twenty in the world uh to list your company behind Mexico. They take all their jobs, all their taxes, everything. You deregulate. I mean revolute left

You know, I speak to young people, they're um leaving university, my teenage kids' friends. They're not like, Oh, I wanna l I wanna stay in London, it's so exciting, I wanna stay in England and get a job. No, they all wanna leave. Yeah, and and so we've we didn't invest in skills, we didn't invest in technology, we relied solely on foreign cheap labor. We're the least automate a country in the G seven. Why is you know, we have the best universities in the world. Why why is that?

Um and that's what I think I think we need to do. We need to make work pay, not they punish work. And I mean The problem is, Leila, and w let's be really blunt about this. It's not just Labour, it's fourteen years of a I wouldn't say useless'cause that's actually a compliment to the c previous Conservative government. But let's say you're gonna have another four or five years of Labour. So that's the best part of two decades.

I mean, if reform were gonna come in, you were gonna be faced with one hell of a challenge. It could be argued that is even more of a challenge than Thatcher faced. मासफ चाल Massive challenge. But you have to have someone who is who is so ra we th we haven't had a radical leader in such a long time. Thatcher was radical. She wasn't scared to do what what it takes.

She wasn't scared to stand up to the unions. She wasn't scared to s be unashamedly pro-capitalist. And we have had leg leaders who are not like that. They're internationalists. You know, they they they they favor international relations. Um and I think that's got to stop. You know, we had Brexit. I was a big Brexiteer because I do believe in a sovereign, uh, free Britain. And you were married to a Frenchman. And I was married to a Frenchman. Um

But we have a government we have governments that didn't believe in it. You know, why w we should be we should be a country that rewards companies come deregulate, allow the markets to pick the winners and losers. Right now we have governments and regulation that are picking the winners and losers. I speak to young to small companies who can't compete just because of re on regulation. They can't compete with the big companies.

And that's a shame. That's not a thriving economy. You do get monopolies at the top who can afford all the regulatory uh requirements that this government has imposed on them. And what you find is small startups are struggling to survive here. I spend a stupid amount of time at a deck. writing, researching, and prepping for trigonometry episodes. After a while I realized the setup I had just wasn't good enough. The wobble, the wrong height, the back pain.

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Leila, you talked or Francis talked about the worse than useless conservative government. You were in supporter of that party when it was useless, uh and several of your recent MPs were in fact ministers in that very useless government that we've just had fourteen years of. And one of the talking points in the last few days has been the sort of the torification of the reform party. Uh and a lot of people are I think wondering whether

you know, in in supporting reform they are effectively going to get more of the same. I I understand the concern and I understand the concern when they see, you know the the people that they associate with a failed Tory government representing us. But I will tell those people there is one fundamental difference.

And it's the same when you're in a company and that's leadership, right? It depends what leader you have. They had a leader who didn't really believe in anything. They had five leaders actually, right? Uh they who would sway with the wind, you know, you felt you felt that they were serving a party. Right now you have a leader whose convictions I don't think anyone can doubt Nigel's convictions. They've always been the same and it's always been to put British people and our country first. And

he won't tolerate anything else. You know, and we're all we all respect our leader. There's no there's no chat in the back to get rid of him. And I think when you have strong leadership with strong convictions, strong priorities, Whoever joins recognizes that that's the aim of the party. And I think that's what the Conservative Party failed to do. They didn't have

Nobody really knew what they stood for. You know, th they they'd look at us and go, you know, we're the party of of low taxation, highest tax uh burden since World War II. We're the party of home ownership. lowest tax home and you know if thirty and forty year olds who don't own a home never will with a party of law and order. Law and order as as we just discussed.

Crime was rife. You know, we're the party of uh business. You know, they they they they deliberately removed the non-dom um policy just to beat Labour. This was a party that was there to serve a party. They've they forgot to serve the British public. Their main aim was to stay in power. I agree with you, but the question I think people are asking is why would reform welcome so many of the people who were part of the very thing you're describing?

And I take your point about Nigel's leadership. I think you're right about his convictions. We've had him on the show a number of times. Never basically changed his tune at all because he believes what he believes. And that's admirable in a politician. I totally agree with you. But I also think a lot of people might be saying, Well, look, I think it's quite obvious reform needs more more high caliber people to stand in all sorts of constituency around the country and then to form a cabinet.

What happens when the party has two hundred MPs, most of whom are formerly part of the failed Tory party and the weight of the balance of power within reform has shifted so heavily towards those people. Isn't reform gonna face exactly the same problem as the Tories, where you effectively had a liberal wing of the party holding back.

actual conservatives, well now you're gonna have, people will say, Tory wets holding back those of you who are actually the sort of native reformers. So so to be fair, Tory wets aren't joining us. Thank you. Uh what about what about what's his face? Jake Berry.

Uh last time I he's a foot soldier. Well hold on a second. Last time I I saw Jake Berry, we were on question time together and his exact words when I challenged the idea of net zero, which I think is economic suicide and I'm sure you you'd agree with me. He said, You're totally wrong, Constantin. Net zero is not the problem, it's the solution. That's who you now have in reform. So so anyone can join. Um I mean I'm serious. It doesn't mean that they'll have a role in government, right? Right.

Uh and it doesn't mean that they you know, th we have lots of ex Tories who have joined us as foot soldiers. And you say, Yeah, I was part of the Conservative Party because And number one, there was no other choice uh uh on the s on the right. And although I don't even think it's right, I just think

For me, I wanted a party that was patriotic, believed you know, my mum always taught me, and I know it sounds corny, you work hard, uh, you shall receive. You don't work hard, you're not gonna get anything. Right. And I I I wanted that you know, i i mirrored in a party where, you know, we will reward you going out, leaving your family at five AM. We will reward you putting half your savings in a company.

We're going to reward that risk and we're going to reward that effort that you take to support yourself and not rely on the state. But we've had the opposite. And I was part of the Conservatives and a lot of people who are still part of the Conservatives, who haven't had the guts to leave.

is because we still think of it as the party of Margaret Thatcher. We really do. And and we try and ignore everything it's done and think that maybe, maybe, just maybe, they might become conservative again. But And then you're like, hang on, there's this other party that is actually saying everything that I believe in and is a the real Conservative party with a small C and that's why they're joining. Um but as I said, everyone who joins won't be in in government, but anyone can join.

You know, we could have we could have you know, we've had a green councillor defence. Because look, I'll be honest with you. I also also, by the way, politics is not is not a permanent damnation. Right. It's not a life sentence. It is as far as I'm concerned. It's not a life well maybe No, I'm joking. It's not a life sentence. Right. So so so so it's almost like y e even in crime, you know, you you you can atone for your sins.

Yes, but there were these people atone for their sins? The party hasn't atoned for its sins. But but uh for instance you mentioned Jenning. I mean one thing he did say, so I was quite skeptical and then his speech he he said something that really resonated with me. He he worded it better than I ever could, where he said, They are so compromised that they can no longer speak for the people.

And that's how I feel the Conservative Party is. They are so, they are the architects of all the issues we face now. But they can't admit it because it's like a criminal being caught red-handed and seeing I'm innocent. They he can't really admit it. But what I Leila, all I'm trying to get you to address is you're welcoming these criminals into your party according to some people

You I'm continuing your metaphor. So it's like a criminal has been caught red-handed and what you now have is a criminal gang who is now bleeding former members to your party. That's how some people see it. And and and and and I can understand it, but all I can say is Nigel Nigel's political view and sense I've always trusted. Um and he made the decision and I think it's the you know, it's the good decision because this the the w what it signals

Uh forget what it the reflection on reform, which I can see some people have their doubts, but what it does signal is that the Conservative Party is effectively finished. Mm-hmm. Right. And if that if that thought process accelerates Nigel Farage being prime minister then for me, anything that does that is in the national interest.

Um and when you have big players, whether you like Jenick or not, but he is a big player in the Conservative I wasn't criticizing Jenric, I was talking about Jake Berry. That's fine. Carry on. But but but but in when you have big players joining and and really eviscerating the Conservative Party, if that accelerates a reform government, then for me

There must be a part of you that is worried when you have someone like Nadim Zahwe joining reform and particularly his behaviour during COVID with vaccine passports. We've spoken about civil liberties. That was one of the most egregious infringements of civil liberties that has happened in all our lifetimes and I think we can agree with that. I I agree with that. A hundred percent. I do. I do. I mean my my teenagers are not my my kids are not vaccinated.

Um, I remember I was pregnant during COVID and I I had I had every single strain, literally. And every two days I'd get a call from the NHS, please can you get vaccinated? In the end I'm like, For God's sake, this is harassment. I've had it.

I've I've they didn't take in natural immunity at all. It was completely disregarded. Which is the most you know, the most anyway, as I said and and and I think Nadim said in his press conference, he is a foot soldier. Uh anyone can join. Uh and I think Nadim is a very successful businessman. Uh if you remove that aspect of his political career, which I agree, I did not agree with at all.

Uh in fact it's during that period that I started inching away from the Conservative Party and having my doubts. You know, I'd go on you know we could only walk in those days. And I'd go on long walks. I one of my closest friends is a is a is a real lefty, you know, she's an Oxford grad and environmentalist.

And we used to have long, long I think I did like literally half a million steps and and I'd be like, who the hell does this government think it is? You know, w who are they to tell me what to do? And then you'd hear, you know, the number six was an arbitrary number that you could have at your house. Um but he is a successful businessman and I think successful businessmen who have created something from nothing.

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Um and and that and and that's that's how it is. As I said anyone can join. You know, we're not we're not we're not a closed shop. And I tell you why this is so important, Leila. And it's because one of the great privileges of doing this shop, both for me and Constantine, is we get to talk to ordinary people about what's going on in the world. And they invariably a lot of the times, less so now, which is very heartening, it's a one two over the shoulder and then asking or saying.

The reason we're pressing you about this particular issue is because I feel the next general election This is it. This is we're drinking in the last chance saloon. We're drinking in the last chancellon culturally, economically, societally. And one of my fears is that we're looking at the same people coming in And going, we're just making the same mistake here. And when I talk to people on the streets, these are ordinary regular people.

They've lost faith in democracy. They've lost faith in democracy, they've lost faith in party politics, and they've lost faith in politicians. And that is a very dangerous place for society to be in. Until reform, I'd lost faith in democracy, to be honest, because I felt I was voting for something and getting the complete opposite. And I campaigned.

under the Tory banner across the country um and for the year beh before the general election and the number one message I got, it wasn't like cost of living, it was you lotter in it for yourself. And and and that really resonated with me. People really felt that politicians were doing politics for themselves.

and the Conservative Party was there to serve itself. And and people that is for me the main difference between reform. No we're not some hundred year old, two hundred year old party that's, you know, bad honor to to be reform is not why we're there. We're there because we really have had enough and we wanna what's best for the country. And people who come over from the Conservatives are doing the same. You know, they they wanna fundamentally fix

what they were part of breaking. And y y uh who you know, who am I to say no to that? They're like, yes, we messed it up, we got it wrong. Please can we help fix it? Leda one other issue I want to raise with you, you actually alluded to it a number of times. You talked about burqa and you talked about parts of London feeling like a Muslim I can't remember the words you used exactly, but

Muslim city, Muslim ghetto, whatever you want to call it. There's obviously I think if we look across Europe, there's been a dramatic rise in the concern about what people might call Islamification, etcetera. Why do you think that's happened? I think so. We saw it across the Middle East.

uh over the past few decades. Um, you saw it in Egypt when my parents have, you know, my mum showed me pictures where people were in bikinis on in swimsuits on the beach. Now you go to a beach, everyone's in full burqa in the sea, all in black. In the Middle East it's because they There's no social mobility at all. um wealth is really accumulated very much at the top. There's no welfare, there's nothing. And people turn to r religion and it's exploited by radical Islamic leaders.

in that sense. Um and I think the reason uh it is here is because we have let people into the country in masses amounts of numbers with no filter who hate the country. You know, you have let people in. Um some of the people we've let in would be considered radical Muslims in in the parts they are and would be nowhere near government. Would be nowhere near local government. But we haven't had that. I mean we've let in

We let Muslim Brotherhood is not prescribed in this country. We let in someone, a convicted bomb maker from Egypt. and considered his claim and put him in a four star hotel in Ealing for eighteen months paid for by the taxpayer. This is someone who was part of the Muslim Brotherhood and convicted. The Muslim Brotherhood

For your viewers, they are the founding fathers of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. You know, you just say that word in some parts of the Middle East and you're imprisoned. Here we grant them asylum. Put them in the middle of towns and villages. He went on to rape someone in Hyde Park. As I said, we we that is for me that is treacherous from a government.

And that's what you have. You have people I don't you know, and I know Merkel let in all the Syrian refugees, despite other European countries begging her not to. Um into our country. They we don't have a government whose sole purpose is to protect the British public and the British World. We don't. We don't have that. And we've let in too many people from certain countries and certain cultures who not only hate the country but want to change it. Why do they hate the country?

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Because it's not a Muslim country. They want it to be a Muslim country. I I I I speak to some. They d you know, I'm not I don't speak, I hear some, they do want it to be a Muslim country. But not only that, they somehow blame Britain for all the woes of of the Middle East or the woes of their country or uh you know, what's going on in Palestine or w what's going on I don't know where, and and they blame it and and they they don't come

with a love of country or Great Britain. They don't come being, I wanna come, I wanna embrace it, I wanna work, I wanna do well, you know, I want my kids to grow up British. That's not why they come. You know, they come and they're like, you know what, I can go there, I can bring in twenty of my family members, I can live for free.

Uh, I can do what I want, I can say what I want, and if the host nation, you know, and if anyone from the host nation complains, I actually call them racist. They get the blame. That's what's going on. Do they think they see us as weak? Do I think what too? Do do you think they see us as weak? I think they see us as suckers. Yeah. You know, as big you know, I had to prosecute one guy, literally had like

receding hairline, almost white hair, and he'd come into the dock and he was from Kuwait. I was like, Why the hell is someone from Kuwait as a refugee? It's such a rich country. But anyway, no war there. And he would be charged with robbery, uh burglary in the house. Well guess what? He said he's sixteen years old.

Right, so he was treated um as not an adult and when you're not an adult you can't be remanded in custody for a crime. So he'd commit uh crimes in a grime and the public prosecutor would stand up and go, He's a child. And y you could almost see him laughing. You could almost see him calling his mates in Kuwait going, Mate man, I come here, I've got a free house, I rob houses and they're arguing for hours over whether I'm sixteen or not.

It it's it's farcical. And the the public prosecutor would stand up and say, He cannot be reminded in custody, he he he he's he's underage and I and then and then the judge would be like, Well, we're gonna have to assign a publicly paid age assessor. God knows what that entails.

Um that's that's how ridiculous it is. And for your viewers, I was in court once and a woman turns up in a burqa in the dock and I'm like um I make an application to the judge. I'm like, Judge, could you please remove her burqa? I have no idea who this person is. And the judge says no. These are religious sensitivities, Madam Prosecutor. We cannot allow her to remove her birth.

And it a th at that moment I realised we're not equal under the law actually. You cannot go to court with a hat. Right? This this person, I don't even know if it was a lady, sounded like one, um, had her complete face covered and I had to conduct a hearing with it. It it As I said, we have cowards running the whole system who are too cowardly to stand up for us and stand up for our country.

And and I think you have seen in other parts of Europe as well. But I think people are recognising they don't want to be run by cowards anymore. They yeah. And when it we're not being run by cowards, what will our immigration and also domestic policy in this area look like to address these challenges that we now face? So I think there will be so for instance for there will be no if you're a foreigner you can't access

Tick, you'll get a lot rid of a lot of illegal immigration amount. Yeah, of course because Congratulations on the other thing. Oh yeah, they're working, but it's so Their salary is so low, the cost of living is so high. They're still in that drain. That they're getting benefits. Agreed. Okay. So sorted. No benefits for foreign nationals. What else? No benefits for foreign nationals. And when you when you remove

That you will have British people put into social housing, you will put you'll put British people at the top of the queue for everything. And I think you will see a fundamental change. You will remove ourselves from the ECHR because the ECHR was never meant to prevent us from deporting illegal migrants. It was never meant to undermine our sovereignty. And I think that is I think the world needs to know that we don't really care.

All we care about is what happens in our country. We don't care what you think of us. Um and we're not definitely not gonna let a judge in Strasbourg tell us what to do or who we can and cannot keep. We want to do that. Britain to thrive again. You know, we have massively deindustrialised.

as a as as a result of net zero. It is it is it's madness, you know. And China's clever because it doesn't go into war. It just slowly de industrializes the world and supplies us with everything. We're so reliant on it for things. We used to be the workshop of the world.

Uh and now everything we used to make we import from China. So I think I'd like to see a an an industrial plan um that puts Britain back on the industrial map, you know, and and we don't have that right now. We don't make anything. Um and and I think once we have a thriving economy, we only sixty per so I speak to farmers.

who are we speak about the inheritance tax of farmers, but there are also tenant farmers who have been told to stop growing food and start growing trees because the landlord gets more money for it. And so we only have we only realize sixty percent of our food is homegrown, forty percent is not. And I'd like to see that flourish. I'd like to see us grow more food. I'd like to see less uh focused on environmental almost removed because it's it's weakened us.

and and a focus on on what we can make, what we can grow, um, and British people focused on it. Upskilling British people. Ha if you need a coder right now or someone to build you an AI platform, you you don't look for someone in Britain, you look for someone abroad. You've got it's demand and supply, right? We don't have enough. Even my kids who are taking computer science, let's say, in A levels or GCSE, they're like, Mom, it's so bad because.

those that teach it are not the best obviously because otherwise they'd be working in a high tech job so We're not even teaching the kids the the jobs of the future at all. My kids I still get called because my kids' handwriting is bad.

You know, I'm like, don't tell me about his handwriting. I want to know how quick his touch typing is. You know, I want to see touch typing competitions, hackathons all across schools. We don't have that. In fact, I went to speak at the Adam Smith Institute last week and I spoke to amazing young guys.

Who have hackathons across and they're like, We've spoken to the government, we they w we want to support them, but they're not. And they're like, We're getting poached from Dubai. You know, I want us to be. Leaders in AI and technology, but I know that relies we need obviously a new energy plan because you know that's it it's heavily reliant, but we also need To embrace that. If you're if you are disabled or if you cannot go into work, but you are

You can learn technical skills, you know, you can learn data analysis, you can learn AI engineering, you can learn all this at home. And that's what I wanna see. I wanna see those nine million people that are cannot go to work back into work one way or another. I think also one of the main one of the a a real significant challenge, not the main challenge, but it's a challenge that we see in our society.

Politically is a rise of sectarian politics. Yeah. And I find that uh terrifying, if I'm being honest with you. The fact that you get MPs. in Parliament talking about helping to build an airport in r in a remote region of Pakistan. I'm going, is this some kind of weird satire that I've found myself watching?

And that again goes in with immigration. You know, you have put a certain demographic from a certain country, you've flooded a certain area that they've managed to control uh the electoral process of it. And that's why it's got to change. It's not just the electoral process. Well they vote the people in. Yeah, they vote the people in. But it's also you look at what's happened with uh Maccabay Tel Aviv. I know.

And then he gets to resign. He's not even fired, the head of the police. I think we should we should talk about it very briefly and you should tell people because there's people in America who are really interested in this and I don't think it's got enough coverage if I'm being honest.

No, I mean so what happened is was that the police cancelled Maccabi Tel Aviv uh fans coming to a football match because they said that there'll be, you know, there'll there'll be fights, there'll be riots, there'll be protests. If you're in danger. we're gonna ban you

We're not gonna stop the danger that presents to you. And that is a horrible message for Jewish people. And and and the the the head of the police actually presented false evidence, lied about something that happened in Amsterdam, and he admitted it. What would your viewers think should happen then? He should be fired with shame. What happened? He got to resign at fifty two.

That is the problem. There is no accountability, but even amongst MPs, you know, they get it wrong and they're like, you know, we're really sorry we got it wrong. We'll get it right next time. But they still stay in their jobs. It's the same with the rape gangs across the country. You know, well we're really sorry, we're gonna do a review, we're gonna do this.

We're only talking about going after the perpetrators. The perpetrators are one slice. I want to go after the social workers, the politicians, the police officers. And now you learn, by the way, that Maccabi Tel Aviv, uh the the the head of the police, who was on his recruitment panel. Who recruited him, the head of the local mosque. And it all starts to come into play that it's all one kabab. Right? Wha what is the head of the mosque doing appointing the head of the police?

And then you think, well hang on, there obviously was a police cover up of the grooming gangs if they're so interlinked with communities that also covered up the grooming gangs that their job relies on it. And Sometimes you think about it, you think it's so big and it's so entrenched. There's so like you say, there's so much to do, but I think it has to come down to accountability and that's what I'd like to see in London. You get it wrong, you're out. There's no sorry.

You know, because this is public money, uh, not only public perception and public trust. But it's also public safety. For instance, uh Mark Riley looked us in the eye and so did Sadiq Khan and said there are no grooming gangs, there are no rape gangs in London. Nothing like that exists here. Yet I read victims' testimonials, one from Oxford, saying that she was driven to London. There were hundreds of men, and she was never asked about it.

Another woman an another girl said she was bundled up in the boot of a car, driven to London from I think the Midlands, driven to a house because her abuser owed people in London and she was gang raped in that house. And yet s and that was in was Sadiq Khanul just before he be came to power, and yet they looked us in the eye and said, nothing happened here. But only under public pressure did they say, oh hang on, we're reviewing 9,000 cases.

Just because it was public how do you get 9,000 cases of of sexual uh rape gang of rape gangs wrong? How do you get that? How do you get that wrong? But he's still in power, right? And and that and and the police is going to review the cases that they originally discarded. Mae'n ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud

Because uh the fact that he said I wasn't aware I w I mean I I was aware that he said something akin to that, but I when I was teaching I taught a victim of the grooming gangs. Did you? I d yeah.

Wow. And that was in East London. Wow. That was in East London and that was ten or so years ago, maybe a bit more. So that and that was that w we knew that because we were we were coordinating with social workers. So he must have known. Oh he must have known and and I don't know if you read the Express did an article.

Basically what happens is they they they fly in men from a certain part of Pakistan to come and gang rape these girls. They s they they set they send photos of the girls to the guys in Pakistan and they they bring them in to gang rape. the girls. And that's why I wrote an article saying if Shabana Mahmood is really serious, then she would and and Pakistan's not taking back these people. If she was really serious, which she's not

She would issue visa bans against Pakistan until they took these people back. I d we don't want them in our country. Um but she hasn't done that, obviously, and you've got to ask yourself why. I mean she talks a good game. It's so easy to talk a good game. You know, sh she said, Oh, you know, these are the toughest measures we've ever had and she c she she visa bans from DLC, Congo and Angola. What? Why? Hardly any of those come on a boat. No, we want to see from Afghanistan, uh, Somalia.

uh Pakistan. But they're not doing that. Th they they always talk a good game. And actually you know what you know what will be really a good game? Is that if you come on a boat, the moment you enter a boat in France that you know that if you arrive here you will be prosecuted.

She said no, we're instead of a five-year visa or you know, we'll give you a two-year stay in a hotel and keep reviewing it. That's what they call far-reaching. They just tinker around the edges. You need you you need someone to come and literally. Blow it up. Not not you know just it's got to stop. It it cannot be business as usual. And that's what we have with the two parties. It's just business as usual. Because the status quo suits them.

Layla, thank you so much for coming on. Before we head uh to Substack where our supporters get to ask you their questions, what's the one thing that we're not talking about that we should be? I think people are not talking enough about how successive governments have managed to divide us into different sections. You know, you're Muslim, you're Jewish, you're Christian, you grew up in a council state, you didn't, you're gay, you're not.

And that's got to stop because Um and I wanna I wanna be the candidate, the mayor that unites everyone under the banner of London, I don't wanna divide and conquer. And that's what I think that's what they've managed to do in the past few years and you've seen it across the world.

you know, we're all put into our own little demograph demographic box and we're all meant to pit against each other for certain rights, certain privileges, um, or even just political attention and and that's got to toss we're all human beings and I I don't want I don't want us divided anymore. It's a good message to end on. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Head on over to Substack where Lela is going to answer your questions.

What will it take for you to attract support to defeat Sadiq Khan? Because London is pretty lefty liberal Romainer. How are you gonna beat him?