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

00:00:01.000 I've seen my city change, and particularly let's look at crime.

00:00:05.000 Crime is rampant in my ward.

00:00:07.000 Every crime metric is actually through the roof.

00:00:10.000 I just feel Londoners don't feel the police have their back.

00:00:13.000 I'm so sick and tired of being divided.

00:00:14.000 You know, they're very good at dividing us. 0.99

00:00:16.000 I think we've been led by political cowards. 0.82

00:00:18.000 London has the largest number of illegal migrants housed in hotels. 0.92

00:00:22.000 Do they think they see us as weak? 0.99

00:00:23.000 I think they see us as suckers. 0.96

00:00:25.000 I go to certain parts of London. 0.92

00:00:28.000 It doesn't really feel like a British city.

00:00:30.000 My parents and Muslim, they didn't move to London to find some Egyptian village.

00:00:37.000 They've lost faith in democracy, they've lost faith in party politics,

00:00:40.000 and they've lost faith in politicians.

00:00:42.000 And that is a very dangerous place for society to be in.

00:00:45.000 This is it. We're drinking in the last chance saloon.

00:00:48.000 100%.

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00:01:34.000 Leila Cunningham, you're standing to be the mayor of London for reform.

00:01:39.000 Welcome to Trichnometry.

00:01:40.000 Thank you. Thanks for having me.

00:01:41.000 We will talk about all the political stuff in a second, but actually you're someone who's got a very interesting story.

00:01:46.000 So tell us a little bit about who you are and how you find yourself sitting here.

00:01:50.000 Well, that's a long story. I'm born and raised in London all my life.

00:01:55.000 I went to play basketball in California for a while, and then went to Cairo for two years at university to check it out.

00:02:03.000 But mainly I'm born and raised in London, and I love it.

00:02:07.000 And, you know, I've watched my city change, and that's upset me.

00:02:12.000 I've watched it change in so many different ways, actually.

00:02:15.000 And I feel like I'm not going to let it succumb to crime.

00:02:19.000 I'm not going to let it succumb to woke ideology.

00:02:22.000 I'm going to fight back for my city, and that's how you find me here.

00:02:25.000 Yeah. Well, tell us more about your story, because you kind of skipped over.

00:02:28.000 You said it's a long story, but actually it's really relevant and interesting in terms of all the stuff that we now talk about.

00:02:33.000 Right.

00:02:34.000 So you're a mother of seven. I think five of them are yours, and you've got two stepkids. 0.92

00:02:38.000 You used to play basketball professionally?

00:02:40.000 My dream was to play professionally.

00:02:42.000 And I thought, you know, when I went to America, I thought I'd kill it.

00:02:45.000 But actually, because I'm quite tall for, you know, someone in Britain, but actually I was quite short in the US.

00:02:50.000 I don't know what they feed women there. 0.99

00:02:52.000 And, you know, my parents wanted me back. They didn't want me all the way in California.

00:02:56.000 So I went to play there, but then I wanted to come back. I came back here.

00:03:00.000 And the way basketball works is that if you're not willing to get injured, you're not a good player.

00:03:05.000 So when my teens, I was, I was, I'd go for it, you know, strong defender.

00:03:10.000 I'd go for the basket.

00:03:12.000 But, you know, as you got older and injury just took longer, you become a less better player.

00:03:16.000 And I'm quite competitive on the pitch, on the court.

00:03:19.000 And so I was playing kind of in this league.

00:03:22.000 And then I popped my Achilles in my twenties.

00:03:25.000 And after that, it was such a long, tedious recovery.

00:03:29.000 In fact, it's still kind of there.

00:03:31.000 I kind of gave up on it, sadly.

00:03:33.000 But, you know, my first, when I became a counsellor, I went to teach in my local school.

00:03:39.000 I love basketball because what basketball taught me actually, it was a really important lesson, was teamwork.

00:03:45.000 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.

00:03:52.000 So if someone, you know, you 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.

00:03:59.000 You know, and you learn that it's not only about you, your actions, you know, if you're part of a team, have consequences for others.

00:04:06.000 Perfect set up for politics, huh?

00:04:08.000 Yeah.

00:04:09.000 Some politicians are in it for themselves.

00:04:11.000 Oh, really?

00:04:12.000 Shocking.

00:04:13.000 Shocking.

00:04:14.000 And so why did you decide to get into politics?

00:04:19.000 You know what?

00:04:20.000 It was just a natural progression.

00:04:22.000 I've always been involved in politics, interested in politics.

00:04:25.000 You know, as I said, I was, my other siblings, my eldest sister's 20 years older than me.

00:04:31.000 She was actually a doctor when I was being born in the same hospital.

00:04:35.000 Wow.

00:04:36.000 So I was really the last with my mum.

00:04:38.000 And my mum really didn't watch a lot of TV except the news.

00:04:42.000 So I grew up watching the news.

00:04:44.000 I remember I used to plait her hair as we'd watch, you know, News at 10, Spitting Image, all kinds of stuff.

00:04:49.000 And she loved Margaret Thatcher and we discussed politics and, you know, it was under Margaret Thatcher that her life changed.

00:04:54.000 They came from a communist Egypt to England in the 60s.

00:04:59.000 So politics really shaped a lot of the conversation at home.

00:05:03.000 And I was acutely aware of the effects that different political leadership can have on people's lives.

00:05:09.000 And, yeah, it was just, it was always a natural progression.

00:05:15.000 You know, 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.

00:05:21.000 And it was so frustrating, actually, to be part of something when I knew that things could be changed and I couldn't do anything about it.

00:05:27.000 And I joined my local conservative branch.

00:05:31.000 You know, in fact, they needed legal advice at the time.

00:05:33.000 So I gave them some free legal advice and then I just, you know, volunteered and it was a natural progression.

00:05:38.000 And then they were looking for candidates and crime was really rampant in my area.

00:05:41.000 And I'm like, God's sake, you know, how can we do something about it?

00:05:44.000 And said, you know, I'll run and try and make my area crime free.

00:05:49.000 And I became, you know, I was known as a crime fighting counsellor.

00:05:53.000 And I, you know, I said, I'm going to try and really do something with this.

00:05:57.000 And so I held, you know, the first public meeting between the police and residents, because you find there is a disconnect between the police and residents,

00:06:03.000 where they could actually hear from the police what they're doing because they do do good work and they can tell them the issues.

00:06:09.000 And then I set up different WhatsApp groups where I would feed intel from the residents to the police, you know,

00:06:13.000 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 999.

00:06:19.000 They feed me those license plates and actually, you know, we managed to kind of break up some organised crime operations in the area.

00:06:25.000 I went after criminals myself. I wouldn't advise anyone to do that.

00:06:30.000 You know, there were a bunch of Roma gypsies that would particularly come to the area.

00:06:33.000 They'd have the women there who would beg for money and the men would come all dressed nicely and follow people and unzip their, you know, their bags. 0.91

00:06:42.000 And so I would film them and say, listen, I'm with the police. I'm the councillor here. I don't want to see you here. I know what you're doing.

00:06:48.000 And then I asked the police to do an undercover operation and catch them and they did.

00:06:53.000 So, and that was my council work in terms of getting crime down in my area.

00:06:57.000 And as I was telling you before, crime is rampant in my ward.

00:07:01.000 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.

00:07:14.000 I had another one in a, in a beautiful muse where the drug dealer would set up shop, you know, at about 1pm in the afternoon, set up a whole, set up a clinic.

00:07:23.000 So, and I had videos of this where the drug dealer, the drug addict would come, he'd be injured.

00:07:27.000 The drug addict, the drug dealer would help heal him, give him drugs.

00:07:32.000 All this and, you know, in front of a CCTV. No, no shame in their game because there are no police.

00:07:37.000 And all this was happening and I couldn't believe it.

00:07:41.000 I had one truck that was inhabited by two foreign guys and they were running a brothel at night from it. 1.00

00:07:48.000 So, you know, I would tell the council, police, can we do something about it?

00:07:52.000 And they'd be like, well, you know, they pay their tickets, we don't really tow.

00:07:54.000 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 complaints of illegal activity.

00:08:01.000 It was just, it was infuriating.

00:08:04.000 And so, yeah, that's, but that was when I became a councillor.

00:08:09.000 But I kind of started seeing all these things and I said, well, maybe I can run and try and do something about it.

00:08:13.000 So, Leila, I'm really excited to have you on because we get to talk about London.

00:08:17.000 I'm a Londoner, I've been a Londoner for all my life, 43 years.

00:08:20.000 Where from?

00:08:21.000 South London near Morden.

00:08:22.000 Okay.

00:08:23.000 Not the best. I like that. Okay. All right.

00:08:25.000 All right, you're a South London boy. I'm not here.

00:08:27.000 Yeah.

00:08:28.000 But I've seen my city change and you've said that.

00:08:31.000 So let's actually talk about it.

00:08:32.000 What does it mean that the city's changed?

00:08:34.000 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 or whatever else.

00:08:45.000 But we all feel it's a very different city.

00:08:48.000 Yeah, we do feel it's a different city.

00:08:49.000 And the thing is, 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.

00:08:57.000 Homicide rates is the only stat that has gone down.

00:08:59.000 And knife crime's up by 68% in the past 10 years.

00:09:02.000 A rape is reported every hour.

00:09:06.000 We are going through a robbery epidemic.

00:09:10.000 You know, every crime metric is actually through the roof.

00:09:13.000 Shoplifting is literally a form of shopping.

00:09:15.000 Robbery, knife crime, everything.

00:09:19.000 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 95%, because you can't really ignore a dead body, is 6%.

00:09:34.000 So 94% of victims in the city do not even get a look in.

00:09:38.000 And I actually spoke to a lady who was raped.

00:09:41.000 And she told me that the police said, we're not going to investigate.

00:09:46.000 And I actually emailed the police for her and said, why aren't you putting this to charge?

00:09:51.000 And they said, because she was smiling on the CCTV before she went up to his house.

00:09:56.000 And they said, we are not confident, this were the words, that a jury would convict.

00:10:01.000 And I said, you are not to act as judge and jury, but that's what's going on.

00:10:04.000 They are so focused on metrics, so focused on getting convictions, that they are not putting things to charge.

00:10:10.000 And that is the police.

00:10:11.000 I said, are you not even going to send it to the CPS to charge?

00:10:13.000 And they said, no.

00:10:14.000 And the CPS is the Crown Prosecution Service?

00:10:16.000 Yes.

00:10:17.000 So what normally happens, and I was a senior Crown Prosecutor in London, and what normally happens is the police collect all the evidence and they submit it to the Crown Prosecution Service if it's deemed worthy of a charge.

00:10:30.000 They're not even doing that.

00:10:32.000 And that's what I want to change.

00:10:33.000 I just feel Londoners don't feel the police have their back.

00:10:37.000 I honestly speak to small supermarkets who tell me that the police are screening their calls.

00:10:44.000 They don't answer their calls anymore because they're calling every half an hour.

00:10:47.000 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 shop because they feel they have to do it themselves.

00:10:54.000 The social contract between the police and the state and the people is broken because the only thing you can't provide privately for yourself is the police, right?

00:11:04.000 Everything else you can, if you've got the money, do it.

00:11:07.000 And I think that is why it's the government's first duty and they failed.

00:11:11.000 And how much of that, because look, I'm all for blaming Sadiq Khan, right?

00:11:16.000 Let's be honest.

00:11:17.000 But how much of that is actually Sadiq Khan's fault and how much of that, look, I talk to coppers all the time. 0.55

00:11:23.000 You only have to mention the words Theresa and May together and they all collectively blow a gasket because of the way the police was defunded and the cuts.

00:11:31.000 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?

00:11:39.000 So let's break it down.

00:11:40.000 So after 2008, after the financial crash, the criminal justice system did take the biggest hit in terms of lack of funding.

00:11:47.000 And they did cut policing.

00:11:49.000 And what Theresa May did even worse was that she really politicised Stop and Search and said it was targeting certain ethnic communities more 0.95

00:12:00.000 and that police forces had to reduce it.

00:12:04.000 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 offence.

00:12:13.000 So that is true.

00:12:14.000 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.

00:12:22.000 And then if it does go up to the ground, so they cut them all.

00:12:24.000 So, for instance, I was a senior Crown Prosecutor about, you know, ten years ago in Surrey, in Guildford.

00:12:30.000 And I worked, you know, the Crown, the courts were in Staines, Woking, Guildford and I forget the other one.

00:12:38.000 They were all cut. Only Guildford remains.

00:12:40.000 And so, number one, people from other parts of Surrey don't have representation in the magistrates.

00:12:46.000 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.

00:12:56.000 So that is that one.

00:12:58.000 And then in terms of Sadiq Khan, he is the police and crime commissioner and he sets the budget.

00:13:02.000 He sets the priorities and he sets the direction.

00:13:06.000 So he actually, all the blame lies at him.

00:13:09.000 And he also appoints the police and crime commissioner with the approval of the Home Secretary.

00:13:13.000 But he sets, you know, he created a specialist unit to fight hate crime, right? 0.79

00:13:21.000 While violent crime was going up, women were getting raped. 0.99

00:13:25.000 He set up a unit to fight words.

00:13:29.000 And, which he does very well, you know, he's very good with these identity politics.

00:13:35.000 But that's not what matters to people. We're not interested in division.

00:13:39.000 We're interested in unity because we all, we all suffer the same crime.

00:13:43.000 And I think people want him to police violent crime as opposed to words.

00:13:48.000 And I think one of the most frustrating things as a Londoner is obviously violent crime is awful,

00:13:54.000 but it's simple things like you're walking outside Vauxhall Station, which is a major trains and tube station.

00:14:00.000 It's a major transportational hubs. And you just see the kids with their faces covered, dressed all in black, the hoodie.

00:14:07.000 And you know, and you see for yourself, they go around nicking phones and you're going, where is the police?

00:14:13.000 Where are the police?

00:14:14.000 Well, so my kids were targeted by those mask gang, youth gangs. 0.95

00:14:19.000 And, you know, you can't, and I prosecute people in masks, by the way.

00:14:23.000 It's very difficult to prove.

00:14:25.000 So you go on clothes, you go on evidence that it's not 100%, and you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed it.

00:14:31.000 So it does provide a cloak of anonymity and a protective cloak of anonymity against consequences.

00:14:36.000 In fact, last, you know, I said, one of my main policies, I'd want the police, if you are covering your face,

00:14:43.000 for that to be a reason for stop and search for precisely that reason.

00:14:46.000 You know, they came out against me saying, and they said, would it be the burqa?

00:14:49.000 I said, yes, actually, I speak to some shops in central London in Mayfair, and they say people come in burqas and steal and leave. 1.00

00:14:55.000 You know, and it has to be indiscriminate.

00:14:58.000 If you cover your face in an open society, that has to be a reason for stop and search, because the rest of us are suffering.

00:15:06.000 And then they want to bring in facial recognition, right?

00:15:09.000 Labour has said across the country, what's the point if people are, if they don't ban face coverings?

00:15:14.000 If they don't make face coverings a reason for stop and search?

00:15:17.000 Because you and I, the normal person, we're going to be tracked for life, right?

00:15:21.000 Tracked, and criminals won't.

00:15:25.000 And that's a really good point, because you look at the way things are going in London, and like you said,

00:15:32.000 I was in Finnsby Park recently, I saw people going to a Pret-a-Manger and quite literally stealing and walking out.

00:15:38.000 And we were talking before this recording started about California, where it seems theft has been legalised.

00:15:44.000 And I'm seeing the same thing happen to London.

00:15:47.000 Yeah, I mean, so I was, so what happens is, I was a senior crime prosecutor, right?

00:15:54.000 And we did a lot of theft, obviously, in the courts.

00:15:56.000 And what happens is...

00:15:57.000 Prosecutor.

00:15:58.000 Prosecutor, yeah.

00:15:59.000 Sorry.

00:16:00.000 Sorry.

00:16:01.000 People might misread that one.

00:16:02.000 Yeah, sorry.

00:16:03.000 And what happens is, someone comes in, right?

00:16:05.000 And they've stolen a bunch of stuff.

00:16:08.000 And the punitive element of it is almost removed, because they try and look at the offender.

00:16:13.000 Oh, you know, he's a drug addict.

00:16:14.000 He's trying to fund his alcohol addiction. 0.82

00:16:16.000 He's trying to fund his drug addict.

00:16:17.000 What can we do for him?

00:16:19.000 And so the shoplifting, even if they are prosecutors, which only 6% are, it almost takes a back...

00:16:27.000 It goes...

00:16:28.000 It's not prioritised.

00:16:30.000 So, you're like, oh, you know what?

00:16:32.000 I robbed it because I have a drug addict.

00:16:34.000 So they're like, you know what?

00:16:35.000 Let's get you into a drug programme and probation. 0.51

00:16:37.000 Let's see what we can do.

00:16:38.000 And then, I remember, I once stood up, and I said, hang on, you know, he hit a security guard.

00:16:44.000 And security guards are...

00:16:45.000 And they're like, okay, you know what?

00:16:46.000 We'll give the security guards £50 compensation.

00:16:51.000 Exactly.

00:16:52.000 Exactly that.

00:16:53.000 It's insulting.

00:16:54.000 It is insulting.

00:16:55.000 It's insulting, right?

00:16:56.000 And then people, you do hear the police and politicians say, well, you know, security guards

00:16:59.000 need to do their work.

00:17:00.000 You know, they need...

00:17:01.000 Why should they?

00:17:02.000 Because they don't feel the courts have their back when it does come to prosecution.

00:17:07.000 But on the flip side, we do have a fundamental problem in this country where a lot...

00:17:12.000 A big section of criminals are not really criminals. 0.81

00:17:14.000 They're drug addicts.

00:17:15.000 And I think you probably have the same in California. 0.63

00:17:17.000 And some of them come in the dark.

00:17:19.000 Some of them are veterans.

00:17:20.000 And they say, I beg you.

00:17:21.000 I don't want to be here.

00:17:22.000 Help me.

00:17:23.000 You know, and it's heartbreaking because there is no tool to help them.

00:17:27.000 What happens is you're like, okay, you're a drug addict.

00:17:30.000 We're going to give you a drug rehabilitation order. 0.85

00:17:32.000 That might sound effective, but all it means is, I think, you know, speaking to probation

00:17:36.000 or an alcohol rehabilitation.

00:17:38.000 They come in and they're like, have you drank today?

00:17:40.000 They're like, no.

00:17:41.000 Have you had drugs today?

00:17:42.000 And they leave.

00:17:43.000 Right?

00:17:44.000 And this is my personal opinion.

00:17:46.000 It's not reform policy, but you would almost want a prison that's like the Priory.

00:17:51.000 You know, where you do not leave until you are clean.

00:17:54.000 And they'd love that.

00:17:56.000 It's very hard to get pure drug rehabilitation on the NHS.

00:18:00.000 I know because a friend of mine has a son who had it.

00:18:03.000 She had to send him to Thailand.

00:18:04.000 It was so expensive.

00:18:05.000 And I think that could reduce a lot of the petty crime you see.

00:18:10.000 And they're desperate for help.

00:18:12.000 The news doesn't just tell you what's happening.

00:18:15.000 It often tells you what to think is happening.

00:18:17.000 And these days, the biggest red flag isn't what's said.

00:18:20.000 It's what gets left out.

00:18:21.000 That's why I use Ground News.

00:18:23.000 It's the only app that compares how the same story is covered across the political spectrum

00:18:28.000 and show you what whole audiences are not being told.

00:18:31.000 The Blindspot feed is one of my favorite features.

00:18:33.000 Every day, it flags upwards of 20 stories that are being ignored either by the left or the right.

00:18:38.000 Follow along at ground.news slash trigonometry.

00:18:41.000 Like this.

00:18:42.000 A new study from UC San Diego found that climate change cost almost twice as much as we thought

00:18:47.000 because earlier estimates left out damage to the oceans.

00:18:50.000 That's a pretty big update.

00:18:51.000 And yet no coverage.

00:18:52.000 Literally zero came from right-leaning outlets.

00:18:55.000 Or this.

00:18:56.000 A recent Gallup poll found trust in the media has hit a record low with just 28% of Americans

00:19:01.000 saying they trust newspapers, radio, and TV to report the news accurately and fairly.

00:19:06.000 That's a staggering result.

00:19:07.000 But if you only read left-leaning news, you likely never saw it at all.

00:19:11.000 Go to ground.news slash trigonometry to get 40% off their unlimited vantage plan.

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00:19:49.000 I mean, this is one of the big challenges, I think, in policy.

00:19:54.000 We're sort of going in the direction I didn't expect.

00:19:56.000 Sorry.

00:19:57.000 No, no, but this is good because it kind of shows that you've got some original ideas,

00:20:01.000 which I think is really great when you're talking to political candidates.

00:20:04.000 Because Frances and I have talked for a long time about the fact that treating drug addiction

00:20:10.000 as a crime, rightly or wrongly, moral, blah, blah, blah aside,

00:20:14.000 it just doesn't work in practical terms.

00:20:16.000 And if you could treat people for their drug addiction,

00:20:19.000 Portugal, for example, has done some good work on this.

00:20:21.000 Right.

00:20:22.000 You'd find you're solving the actual problem as opposed to, you know,

00:20:26.000 one of the problems obviously we have is we don't have enough prison places.

00:20:29.000 And that's partly because there's some people who really need to be in prison for a very long time,

00:20:34.000 far, far longer than they're going there now.

00:20:36.000 Yes.

00:20:37.000 But there's also a lot of people that are ending up there who just got a drug problem

00:20:40.000 and if they could get that help and get help with that and then be able to be reintegrated into society,

00:20:45.000 we'd address a lot of those issues.

00:20:47.000 A lot.

00:20:48.000 So why isn't that a reform position?

00:20:50.000 Well, I think there's costings involved.

00:20:52.000 We haven't discussed it.

00:20:53.000 Obviously, policy is being drawn out.

00:20:55.000 But I do think that you're right.

00:20:58.000 You know, if you address some root cause, they're just criminals

00:21:02.000 and they're just horrible people that need to be put in prison.

00:21:05.000 Others, you know, it really is a drug addiction through circumstances of life.

00:21:09.000 You know, I speak to some veterans who say after, you know, the PTSD,

00:21:13.000 they did become drug addicts.

00:21:15.000 And number one, for me, that's shameful.

00:21:18.000 You know, the fact that our veterans are not put on a pedestal and treated like kings

00:21:22.000 is a blemish on any country.

00:21:25.000 But yeah, they deserve help to stop it as opposed to this roundabout of going to prison, going to prison.

00:21:30.000 And, you know, they go to prison for a day here or a day there.

00:21:33.000 What they do really need is help with stopping drug addiction.

00:21:37.000 Whereas in San Francisco, I think they're giving them the drugs, right?

00:21:40.000 I don't know exactly what the latest policy is.

00:21:43.000 But I think it's refreshing to hear because I think in this country in particular,

00:21:47.000 there's this sort of thing about being perceived as being soft on drugs

00:21:50.000 by talking about the things that we're talking about.

00:21:52.000 Whereas what we're really talking about is pragmatic solutions to actual progress.

00:21:56.000 So you have the drug addicts who really are vulnerable victims, I think sometimes,

00:22:02.000 and you have the drug dealers, right?

00:22:04.000 And that's what we need to go hard on are the drug dealers.

00:22:07.000 And like you say, you know, they'll serve half their time or they'll deal drugs within prison.

00:22:12.000 And that's what you need to go after a lot.

00:22:15.000 And I know, for instance, that a lot of candy shops, souvenir shops across London,

00:22:19.000 they are dealing drugs and they're not being shut down.

00:22:22.000 They're not being shut down by the council.

00:22:24.000 They're not being shut down by the police.

00:22:25.000 There is a massive proliferation of these kind of shops.

00:22:28.000 And you've got to ask yourself there in central London,

00:22:30.000 how are they affording rent?

00:22:31.000 There's no one in there.

00:22:32.000 I mean, just in my area.

00:22:33.000 I mean, there's all the high streets full of it.

00:22:37.000 And so I think we have to have, I don't feel there is a coordinated police emergency unit

00:22:44.000 to deal with the massive proliferation of drug dealing.

00:22:48.000 It does kind of feel like across the country now,

00:22:51.000 but in London, I think it's more noticeable than anywhere.

00:22:54.000 There's just a toleration of crime.

00:22:56.000 There just is.

00:22:57.000 Yeah.

00:22:58.000 And what you find with the two other parties is it can no longer be business as usual.

00:23:05.000 Right now, every party is like business as usual with a little tweak.

00:23:09.000 It has to be a fundamental change.

00:23:11.000 I mean, my teenagers are approached regularly just when they're in their school uniform.

00:23:16.000 Guy in a Covid mask gives them a card with just a mobile phone number, any drugs you want.

00:23:20.000 You know, from the age of 13 they're given that.

00:23:22.000 You know, and he lifts it.

00:23:24.000 You know, ketamine, coke.

00:23:25.000 I mean, people don't realise actually.

00:23:27.000 I had to prosecute a lot of like delivery drivers who also deal drugs.

00:23:32.000 You know, and a bag of coke is like five pounds now.

00:23:35.000 Remember, it used to be like for the rich bankers.

00:23:38.000 It's actually so cheap and easy to get all across London.

00:23:41.000 And no one's dealing with that.

00:23:44.000 No one's dealing with actually breaking these kind of organised crime that has permeated everything.

00:23:49.000 I mean, you've got kids in private schools, state schools all doing drugs.

00:23:53.000 And you mentioned delivery drivers.

00:23:55.000 I mean, one of the things that anyone who's awarded a delivery in London has experienced is

00:23:59.000 the person who turns up is not the person on the app who it's supposed to be.

00:24:05.000 And that's, we know, that's illegal immigrants buying identities to then use within delivery. 1.00

00:24:11.000 Right.

00:24:12.000 How much of an issue is illegal immigration in London, in your opinion?

00:24:15.000 I think illegal immigration is a massive issue.

00:24:18.000 Number one, London has the largest number of illegal migrants housed in hotels.

00:24:22.000 The government likes to call it asylum seekers, but they entered this country illegally. 0.99

00:24:28.000 And they are illegal migrants. 0.76

00:24:30.000 Just because you say the word asylum, it doesn't kind of neutralise the fact that you enter the country illegally.

00:24:34.000 And London has the largest share.

00:24:36.000 You know, where we saw a murder of the guy walking his dog in Uxbridge.

00:24:41.000 Uxbridge, actually, Hillingdon has the largest amount in hotels.

00:24:45.000 And what's really sad is that you have Londoners whose kids can't afford to live in London, right? 0.58

00:24:51.000 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

00:24:56.000 that they can't afford to stay in themselves.

00:24:59.000 So illegal migration has a huge effect.

00:25:03.000 We've even got, you know, now we have councils.

00:25:05.000 So the way it works is you're an asylum seeker.

00:25:08.000 And then when you're granted asylum, you're deemed a refugee.

00:25:11.000 And what we know is that the approval rate for certain countries is over 90%, you know, Somali, Ethiopia.

00:25:19.000 I don't have the facts here, but it's a very high approval rating.

00:25:23.000 So what happens is you come on a boat, you're an illegal entrant.

00:25:27.000 You say the word asylum, this magic word.

00:25:29.000 It's like open sesame.

00:25:32.000 It neutralizes illegal entry.

00:25:34.000 You're deemed an asylum seeker and you get all the benefits paid for by the British taxpayer. 0.99

00:25:39.000 You're put in a four star hotel, you know, and then your claim is, again, all that public resources is granted.

00:25:48.000 You become a refugee and you go to the top of the housing list in London because successive legislation, Theresa May is one of them, 0.74

00:25:56.000 has said that you cannot discriminate for social housing on the basis of nationality.

00:26:01.000 It's quite an extraordinary thing.

00:26:03.000 Extraordinary.

00:26:04.000 If you think about it, so I'm an immigrant.

00:26:06.000 Your parents were immigrants.

00:26:07.000 Frances' mother came here as well.

00:26:09.000 I have never understood why it is that anyone who is not a British national should get access to any benefits whatsoever. 0.93

00:26:15.000 But also if you're not prioritized in your own country, where are you supposed to be prioritized?

00:26:19.000 Right.

00:26:20.000 If your parents aren't going to love you unconditionally, who is?

00:26:23.000 Right.

00:26:24.000 So it is shocking.

00:26:27.000 And also when they say discriminate against nationality, fine, put foreigners in that bracket.

00:26:32.000 But British people, of course, should be prioritized.

00:26:35.000 And that's not discrimination.

00:26:37.000 If you flip it, discrimination is actually prioritizing the people who built this city.

00:26:42.000 Wait, so are you in principle okay with foreign nationals getting benefits? 0.69

00:26:45.000 No, I'm not.

00:26:46.000 No, you're not.

00:26:47.000 Okay.

00:26:48.000 I don't think foreign nationals should get any benefits. 1.00

00:26:49.000 Yeah.

00:26:50.000 Of course not.

00:26:51.000 Right.

00:26:52.000 Why?

00:26:53.000 I have no idea.

00:26:54.000 We have the highest tax burden since World War II and the lowest productivity in the public sector.

00:26:59.000 So you've got to ask why.

00:27:00.000 No, I don't think so.

00:27:02.000 And as it stands, British people are not being prioritized for social housing in this city.

00:27:07.000 And it actually makes me angry.

00:27:12.000 Because again, where are you supposed to...

00:27:13.000 You know, I speak to people who are like, their son is on number 400 on the list.

00:27:18.000 But someone who's just arrived, doesn't speak English, gets a three bedroom house for free. 1.00

00:27:23.000 And then if you say that, you're racist, by the way.

00:27:26.000 Which I did.

00:27:27.000 I said it in one of the council meetings, I was called racist.

00:27:30.000 So I think that there has to be... 0.97

00:27:33.000 I think we've been led by political cowards. 0.99

00:27:36.000 You know, political cowards who have been voted in to represent British people, but have been too cowardly to do so. 0.99

00:27:42.000 You know what's interesting? 0.99

00:27:43.000 And I'm sure you know this.

00:27:45.000 You've travelled extensively abroad.

00:27:48.000 It's funny, in this country, if you say that, you might be called racist by some people.

00:27:53.000 If you tell people in any other country that in Britain, we actively discriminate against our own population in favour of foreigners, they all think we're crazy.

00:28:03.000 Everyone around the world thinks what we're doing is insane.

00:28:06.000 I know.

00:28:07.000 I know they do.

00:28:08.000 And they think...

00:28:09.000 They also think, how do we put up with it?

00:28:11.000 Yeah.

00:28:12.000 You know, and what is the aim?

00:28:14.000 But I think that's why reform is doing so well.

00:28:16.000 You know, and that's why I think people are like, I'm so sick and tired of being put on the back.

00:28:23.000 I'm so sick and tired of being divided.

00:28:25.000 You know, they're very good at dividing us as well.

00:28:27.000 And I think that's why reform is doing so well, because we're unashamedly for British people. 1.00

00:28:32.000 You know, I don't feel...

00:28:34.000 When I say London's changed as well, I go to certain parts of London, and it doesn't really feel like a British city.

00:28:43.000 It really doesn't.

00:28:45.000 It doesn't feel...

00:28:46.000 It feels more like a Muslim city in some areas, you know?

00:28:51.000 And that...

00:28:52.000 You go to Whitechapel, that feels like a Muslim city.

00:28:54.000 That doesn't feel like London.

00:28:55.000 No, it doesn't.

00:28:56.000 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.

00:29:04.000 You know, their way of life, their values have been eradicated.

00:29:07.000 And they've got burka markets in Tower Hamlets, you know?

00:29:12.000 And, listen, my parents are Muslim, but they didn't move for that. 1.00

00:29:18.000 You know, so many Muslims...

00:29:19.000 They didn't move to London to find some Egyptian village in London.

00:29:25.000 No, they moved to London because it is the capital of the United Kingdom and everything that Great Britain represents.

00:29:31.000 And I don't feel the capital city represents that anymore.

00:29:34.000 And I feel we've lost that identity.

00:29:37.000 And...

00:29:38.000 Yeah.

00:29:39.000 What can you do about that, though?

00:29:40.000 Well, the mayor doesn't really have any control over social housing, but, you know, he has failed to build so much housing.

00:29:46.000 And I'd like to see more...

00:29:48.000 British workers have been priced out of London, so I'd like to see... 1.00

00:29:52.000 You know, he has a huge mandate to build so many homes.

00:29:54.000 You know, he has failed to build on all the brownfield sites that he could.

00:29:59.000 He gets a huge allocation from local government, central government to build.

00:30:03.000 He hasn't.

00:30:04.000 For instance, there's a lot of industrial sites in London that really house very low-wage, low-skilled work.

00:30:13.000 And because of labour ideology that, you know, you can't take this from workers, he has the power to make that into homes.

00:30:21.000 He hasn't.

00:30:23.000 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,

00:30:32.000 and British people who work in London can no longer afford to live here.

00:30:36.000 You've found an influx of foreigners who don't really want to live in a British... 1.00

00:30:41.000 Who want to live in Britain, but don't want to live in Britain, if you know what I mean?

00:30:45.000 And British people are priced out of the UK.

00:30:48.000 I mean, you remember London.

00:30:49.000 I remember growing up in London, Hackney was so cool.

00:30:51.000 Do you remember? It was all the artists.

00:30:52.000 Yeah.

00:30:53.000 Yeah, it was some other capital, but, you know, we kind of put up with that.

00:30:56.000 You'd go see studios.

00:30:57.000 It was cool.

00:30:58.000 You know, I find that kind of coolness to London's gone.

00:31:02.000 You know, there's no independent shops on the high street.

00:31:04.000 No.

00:31:05.000 It's either candy shops, vape shops, but you don't get little cool boutiques or...

00:31:09.000 Yeah, coffee shops have proliferated.

00:31:11.000 I actually did the math.

00:31:12.000 I think it's a massive markup on coffees.

00:31:14.000 So I get that.

00:31:15.000 But that eclectic element to London, I find, has changed.

00:31:21.000 Universities are a bad deal.

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00:33:16.000 They were bringing in a lot of changes.

00:33:18.000 This is something I'm actually very interested to talk to you about, because when David Lammy announced this particular policy,

00:33:24.000 my jaw was on the floor when they were talking about getting rid of jury trials.

00:33:29.000 Yeah.

00:33:30.000 So, there's a lot of people who haven't heard about this.

00:33:33.000 You work for the Crown Prosecution Service.

00:33:35.000 What are David Lammy's plans, and why are they, in my opinion, so egregious?

00:33:41.000 So, as your viewers, I don't know if your viewers know, but we create, the Magna Carta created trial by jury,

00:33:47.000 you know, to be tried by 12 of your peers, because let's face it, the judge's state is part of the state.

00:33:54.000 Prosecutor's part of the state.

00:33:56.000 The only part of the judicial system that is really not part of the state is the jury.

00:34:02.000 It protects you against the state.

00:34:04.000 And in this country, we do have a magistrate system where up to 12 months, there is no jury.

00:34:09.000 But you do have a bench from laypeople mainly, which is kind of like a mini-jury.

00:34:16.000 And what he's saying is that to reduce the backlog, he's going to remove jury trials.

00:34:22.000 What he really is removing is people's power.

00:34:28.000 You know, because right now what they've also done, and a lot of those three-year trials,

00:34:32.000 where you get a three-year conviction, is when you say hateful content.

00:34:38.000 You know, look at people who've been prosecuted after the Southport trials.

00:34:44.000 And what you've found is when it has been a jury, they've acquitted them in five minutes, 0.79

00:34:48.000 because they're like, it's ridiculous.

00:34:50.000 And when you have had a judge, they've had a very, very harsh penalty.

00:34:55.000 So they're upping the chance of you being prosecuted for something they don't like you saying,

00:35:04.000 and they're removing the protection from you being acquitted.

00:35:09.000 And it's draconian, but it's all a form of control.

00:35:12.000 You know, they don't trust the people. 1.00

00:35:14.000 And they even said actually that in fraud cases, the jury's too stupid. 1.00

00:35:20.000 So they shouldn't be on the panel. 0.99

00:35:22.000 But the jury consists of people like you and me, who've had families, who've had businesses,

00:35:26.000 who've run a household, who've had...

00:35:29.000 And they bring a wealth of life experience that a judge doesn't.

00:35:33.000 And actually what they found is during fraud cases, the jury actually had very clever questions,

00:35:38.000 very clever notes.

00:35:40.000 But this just, it's an authoritarian regime that doesn't trust the people

00:35:43.000 and wants to control every outcome.

00:35:45.000 That's why they're bringing in facial recognition without removing face coverings.

00:35:49.000 It's all an excuse.

00:35:50.000 It's a guise.

00:35:52.000 And when you lose, I think, rights, fundamental rights under the guise of safety

00:35:58.000 or convenience or expedience, you end up with neither.

00:36:04.000 Now, David Lammy would go, well, hang on a moment, Leila.

00:36:07.000 Because of COVID, we now have cases that have years to be...

00:36:13.000 Yeah.

00:36:14.000 Victims have to wait years to get their moment in court.

00:36:17.000 And these are very serious crimes.

00:36:19.000 This is suffering.

00:36:20.000 These people are waiting years, literal years for things like rape, murder, whatever.

00:36:25.000 And it's not acceptable.

00:36:27.000 This is a policy that the government is doing.

00:36:29.000 We're going to streamline it and we're going to ensure that people get their day in court

00:36:32.000 and victims get justice.

00:36:33.000 What's wrong with that?

00:36:35.000 Because the judicial system only works if it's fair and reliable, not if it favours the state.

00:36:43.000 And when you remove jury trials, it will invariably favour the state and the government.

00:36:48.000 You can't remove people's fundamental rights for expediency.

00:36:52.000 It's not our fault that there's a backlog.

00:36:55.000 That's the government's fault.

00:36:56.000 They have to sort it out.

00:36:57.000 And you know what's happened is, and I go back to hate crime because it's a real bugbear of mine.

00:37:02.000 So you have magistrates' trials, which if you, let's say I hit you, right?

00:37:08.000 Just push you.

00:37:09.000 That's an assault.

00:37:10.000 Quite a minor thing.

00:37:11.000 It goes to the magistrates.

00:37:12.000 Magistrates are very quick.

00:37:13.000 If I hit you and call you with a racial slur, it becomes an either way offence.

00:37:19.000 And the criminal can then pick Crown Court, right?

00:37:23.000 And he invariably picked Crown Court because of the massive delay.

00:37:27.000 So then the victim pulls out.

00:37:29.000 He's got three years.

00:37:30.000 It's not an imprisonable offence.

00:37:31.000 He's on bail.

00:37:32.000 He can relax.

00:37:33.000 And that is a huge part of the backlog, is that they've made minor offences into more serious offences,

00:37:41.000 if they're racially or religiously aggravated.

00:37:44.000 And that has to go back to the magistrates.

00:37:46.000 It's a huge backlog, and they've really prioritised words over violent action.

00:37:54.000 So that being the case, what is reforms policy?

00:37:57.000 How would you sort out this huge backlog that we now have in the Crown Prosecution Service?

00:38:02.000 I'd have Crown Court sitting in the weekend.

00:38:04.000 You know, you clear the backlog, just like we did in the Southport trials.

00:38:07.000 You clear the backlog, you have Crown Court in the weekends, you reduce...

00:38:14.000 All the minor offences that are racially or religiously aggravated go back to the magistrates.

00:38:20.000 And that's how you clear it.

00:38:22.000 But you don't clear it.

00:38:23.000 You never clear it by removing people's rights.

00:38:25.000 That's not what a government does. 0.70

00:38:27.000 And it wasn't even in their mandate.

00:38:28.000 You know, they're bringing in incrementally, more and more state control,

00:38:31.000 without ever asking us to vote on it.

00:38:33.000 If they really believed that was the case, then we should have voted on it.

00:38:36.000 And I can guarantee most people wouldn't.

00:38:38.000 So there's a lot of people going, well, what type?

00:38:40.000 What do you mean by state control?

00:38:41.000 Give me some examples.

00:38:42.000 What is the Labour government doing to bring in state...

00:38:45.000 So they're bringing in a digital ID, right?

00:38:47.000 Initially, they said it would be to...

00:38:49.000 So illegal migrants couldn't work. 0.99

00:38:51.000 And then they realised that didn't wash because...

00:38:54.000 Yeah.

00:38:55.000 They're like, oh, hang on.

00:38:56.000 We tried that for a week or two.

00:38:57.000 Obviously, you can get around with it.

00:38:59.000 I mean, you know, if I'm hiring an illegal migrant, 1.00

00:39:01.000 I'm not like, give me your documents.

00:39:02.000 If you don't have your documents, I'm not hiring you.

00:39:04.000 Weak argument.

00:39:05.000 And then they actually said it was going to be easy to buy a house.

00:39:08.000 Right?

00:39:09.000 And then that didn't wash.

00:39:10.000 And now they're saying, you know, I don't know, just so you can have...

00:39:12.000 Initially, they said, you know, so you couldn't work without getting it.

00:39:15.000 And now it's so you can get all your benefits.

00:39:17.000 And what happens is, when you have a centrally controlled digital platform

00:39:21.000 that dispenses all your rights, that you now treat as rights,

00:39:24.000 they will become privileges on the basis of you behaving.

00:39:27.000 You know, oh, you didn't...

00:39:28.000 You said something against the government last year.

00:39:30.000 We're not sure if you're allowed this.

00:39:33.000 You didn't pay your HMRC tax because you're in dispute.

00:39:35.000 Until you pay it, you're not going to be allowed to get an NHS appointment.

00:39:38.000 All the rights, I think, that we deem now as rights,

00:39:41.000 will become privileges on the basis of us behaving.

00:39:44.000 No one asked again for this central control of everything we do.

00:39:49.000 Why wasn't it in the mandate?

00:39:50.000 Why wasn't it in their manifesto?

00:39:52.000 I mean, the election was just 14 months ago.

00:39:55.000 Let's look at...

00:39:56.000 They're cancelling elections for 4 million people, 6 million people.

00:40:00.000 On what basis?

00:40:01.000 On reorganisation.

00:40:02.000 You reorganise after the election.

00:40:03.000 You don't reorganise before.

00:40:05.000 And, by the way, reform is polling to win every single one of those elections,

00:40:09.000 and those nine mayoral positions as well.

00:40:12.000 This is a government that doesn't trust the people.

00:40:15.000 It only...

00:40:16.000 It's a status government.

00:40:17.000 It's a socialist state.

00:40:18.000 They believe in a bigger, bigger state, and they reward dependency.

00:40:22.000 I mean, you've seen it in their budget.

00:40:24.000 Well...

00:40:25.000 The more you're dependent on the state for welfare,

00:40:28.000 that's what they're relying on.

00:40:29.000 They're relying on to grow the pie of people on welfare

00:40:31.000 because if enough people are on welfare,

00:40:33.000 they're always going to vote for more government intervention.

00:40:35.000 But my pushback to that is, Leila, yeah, but you can carry on doing that.

00:40:38.000 Eventually, we're going to go bankrupt, and let's be honest, 0.98

00:40:40.000 this country is pretty close to, to put it bluntly, going fucking broke. 0.96

00:40:45.000 Yeah, of course we are. 0.98

00:40:46.000 Because they...

00:40:47.000 Also, debt finally matters, right?

00:40:49.000 Before, debt didn't matter because it was at 0%.

00:40:51.000 But debt...

00:40:52.000 It's not free anymore.

00:40:55.000 But they don't believe in that.

00:40:57.000 They just want more and more people...

00:40:59.000 The more you're reliant on the state...

00:41:00.000 It's like you're reliant on drugs.

00:41:01.000 You're reliant on a drug addict, right?

00:41:02.000 They want to get you hooked.

00:41:04.000 Once you're hooked on welfare, you'll vote for them for life.

00:41:07.000 They don't want you to own anything.

00:41:08.000 They don't want you to make money.

00:41:10.000 That's what they're betting on.

00:41:11.000 They're not rewarding risk.

00:41:13.000 They're not rewarding people who are working.

00:41:15.000 They don't care about that.

00:41:17.000 And how is reform going to fix all this?

00:41:18.000 Because it's...

00:41:19.000 Look, I agree with you 100% about hooking people on welfare,

00:41:23.000 but getting people off drugs is pretty hard, as we've discussed.

00:41:27.000 How are you going to unhook Britain off the welfare?

00:41:30.000 Well, right now we have some...

00:41:32.000 In some cases, you earn more on welfare than you do working.

00:41:36.000 And, you know, we have imported so much foreign cheap labour

00:41:40.000 that wages have become stagnant since 2008.

00:41:43.000 So you're like, what the hell am I working for?

00:41:45.000 I'm not getting anything.

00:41:46.000 And there's no reward.

00:41:47.000 I can't own a home.

00:41:48.000 It's like 10 times my salary.

00:41:50.000 So I think you have to make wages go up.

00:41:53.000 And the way you make wages go up is that you stop importing foreign cheap labour.

00:41:58.000 You encourage the businesses to open.

00:42:00.000 You know, we're number 20 in the world to list your company behind Mexico.

00:42:05.000 They take all their jobs, all their taxes, everything.

00:42:07.000 You deregulate.

00:42:08.000 I mean, Revolut left us to go to France, as I'm sure you know.

00:42:12.000 Businesses aren't really excited to open up shop here.

00:42:16.000 You know, I speak to young people.

00:42:18.000 Leaving university, my teenage kids' friends.

00:42:21.000 They're not like, ooh, I want to stay in London.

00:42:23.000 It's so exciting.

00:42:24.000 I want to stay in England and get a job.

00:42:26.000 No, they all want to leave.

00:42:27.000 You know, and so we didn't invest in skills.

00:42:31.000 We didn't invest in technology.

00:42:33.000 We relied solely on foreign cheap labour.

00:42:35.000 We're the least automated country in the G7.

00:42:37.000 You know, we have the best universities in the world.

00:42:40.000 Why is that?

00:42:41.000 And that's what I think we need to do.

00:42:44.000 We need to make work pay.

00:42:46.000 They punish work.

00:42:49.000 And, I mean, the problem is, Leila, and let's be really blunt about this.

00:42:55.000 It's not just labour.

00:42:56.000 It's 14 years of a...

00:42:57.000 I wouldn't say useless, because that's actually a compliment to the previous Conservative government.

00:43:02.000 But let's say you're going to have another four or five years of labour.

00:43:05.000 So that's the best part of two decades.

00:43:07.000 Hmm.

00:43:08.000 I mean, if reform are going to come in, you are going to be faced with one hell of a challenge.

00:43:14.000 You could be argued that is even more of a challenge than Thatcher faced.

00:43:18.000 Massive challenge.

00:43:21.000 Massive challenge.

00:43:22.000 But you have to have someone who is so...

00:43:26.000 We haven't had a radical leader in such a long time.

00:43:28.000 Thatcher was radical.

00:43:29.000 She wasn't scared to do what it takes.

00:43:31.000 She wasn't scared to stand up to the unions.

00:43:33.000 She wasn't scared to be unashamedly pro-capitalist.

00:43:37.000 And we have had leaders who are not like that.

00:43:40.000 They're internationalists.

00:43:42.000 You know, they favour international relations.

00:43:45.000 And I think that's got to stop.

00:43:47.000 You know, we had Brexit.

00:43:48.000 I was a big Brexiteer, because I do believe in a sovereign, free Britain.

00:43:53.000 And you were married to a Frenchman.

00:43:56.000 And I was married to a Frenchman.

00:43:58.000 The less French, the better. 1.00

00:44:01.000 But we have governments that didn't believe in it.

00:44:04.000 You know, we should be a country that rewards companies, deregulate, allow the markets to pick the winners and losers.

00:44:12.000 Right now we have governments and regulation that are picking the winners and losers.

00:44:16.000 I speak to young, small companies who can't compete just because of regulation.

00:44:20.000 They can't compete with the big companies.

00:44:22.000 And that's a shame.

00:44:23.000 That's not a thriving economy.

00:44:25.000 You do get monopolies at the top who can afford all the regulatory requirements that this government has imposed on them.

00:44:32.000 And what you find is small startups are struggling to survive here.

00:44:37.000 I spend a stupid amount of time at a desk, writing, researching and prepping for trigonometry episodes.

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00:44:47.000 The wobble, the wrong height, the back pain.

00:44:49.000 If your desk is making your day worse, you feel it.

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00:45:32.000 I tested it the way any normal person would.

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00:46:17.000 Leila, you talked, or Francis talked about the worse than useless Conservative government. 0.88

00:46:23.000 You were in support of that party when it was useless. 0.97

00:46:26.000 For sure. 0.88

00:46:27.000 And several of your recent MPs were in fact ministers in that very useless government that we've just had 14 years of.

00:46:35.000 And one of the talking points in the last few days has been the sort of the Torrification of the Reform Party.

00:46:42.000 And a lot of people are, I think, wondering whether, you know, in supporting reform they are effectively going to get more of the same.

00:46:52.000 I understand the concern.

00:46:54.000 And I understand the concern when they see, you know, the people that they associate with a failed Tory government representing us.

00:47:02.000 But I will tell those people there is one fundamental difference.

00:47:06.000 And it's the same when you're in a company and that's leadership.

00:47:09.000 Right?

00:47:10.000 It depends what leader you have.

00:47:11.000 They had a leader who didn't really believe in anything.

00:47:14.000 They had five leaders actually, right?

00:47:16.000 They, who would sway with the wind.

00:47:19.000 You know, you felt, you felt that they were serving a party.

00:47:21.000 Right now you have a leader whose convictions, I don't think anyone can doubt Nigel's convictions.

00:47:26.000 They've always been the same.

00:47:28.000 And it's always been to put British people and our country first.

00:47:31.000 And he won't tolerate anything else.

00:47:35.000 You know, and we're all, we all respect our leader.

00:47:37.000 There's no, there's no chat in the back to get rid of him.

00:47:40.000 And I think when you have strong leadership with strong convictions, strong priorities, whoever joins recognizes that that's the aim of the party.

00:47:49.000 And I think that's what the Conservative Party failed to do.

00:47:53.000 They didn't have, nobody really knew what they stood for.

00:47:56.000 You know, they'd look at us and go, you know, we're the party of low taxation, highest tax burden since World War Two.

00:48:02.000 We're the party of home ownership, lowest tax home, you know, if 30 and 40 year olds who don't own a home, never will.

00:48:07.000 We're the party of law and order, law and order, as we just discussed, you know, crime was rife.

00:48:13.000 You know, we're the party of business.

00:48:16.000 You know, they deliberately removed the non-dom policy just to beat Labour.

00:48:22.000 This was a party that was there to serve a party.

00:48:25.000 They forgot to serve the British public.

00:48:28.000 Their main aim was to stay in power.

00:48:30.000 I agree with you.

00:48:31.000 But the question I think people are asking is, why would reform welcome so many of the people who were partying?

00:48:36.000 People who were part of the very thing you were describing.

00:48:39.000 And I take your point about Nigel's leadership.

00:48:41.000 I think you're right about his convictions.

00:48:43.000 We've had him on the show a number of times.

00:48:45.000 Never basically changed his tune at all because he believes what he believes.

00:48:48.000 And that's admirable in a politician.

00:48:50.000 I totally agree with you.

00:48:51.000 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 constituents around the country and then to form a cabinet.

00:49:03.000 What happens when the party has 200 MPs, most of whom are formally part of the failed Tory party and the weight of the balance of power within reform has shifted so heavily towards those people?

00:49:17.000 Isn't reform going to face exactly the same problem as the Tories where you effectively had a liberal wing of the party holding back actual Conservatives?

00:49:24.000 Well, now you're going to have people will say Tory wets holding back those of you who are actually sort of native reformers.

00:49:33.000 So to be fair, Tory wets aren't joining us.

00:49:36.000 What about what about what's his face? Jake Berry.

00:49:39.000 Last time.

00:49:40.000 He's a foot soldier.

00:49:41.000 Hold on a second.

00:49:42.000 Last time I saw Jake Berry, we were on question time together.

00:49:45.000 And his exact words when I challenged the idea of net zero, which I think is economic suicide.

00:49:49.000 And I'm sure you'd agree with me.

00:49:51.000 He said, you're totally wrong, Constantine.

00:49:53.000 Net zero is not the problem.

00:49:55.000 It's the solution.

00:49:56.000 That's who you now have in reform.

00:49:58.000 So anyone can join.

00:50:00.000 I mean, I'm serious.

00:50:03.000 It doesn't mean that they'll have a role in government.

00:50:06.000 Right.

00:50:07.000 And it doesn't mean that they, you know, we have lots of ex Tories who have joined us as foot soldiers.

00:50:13.000 And you say, yeah, I was part of the Conservative Party because, number one, there was no other choice on the right.

00:50:20.000 And although I don't even think it's right.

00:50:22.000 I just think, for me, I wanted a party that was patriotic.

00:50:26.000 Believe, you know, my mum always taught me, and I know it sounds corny, you work hard, you shall receive.

00:50:31.000 You don't work hard, you're not going to get anything.

00:50:34.000 Right.

00:50:35.000 And I wanted that.

00:50:36.000 That's correct.

00:50:37.000 I wanted that, you know, mirrored in a party where, you know, we will reward you going out, leaving your family at 5am.

00:50:43.000 We will reward you putting half your savings in a company.

00:50:46.000 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.

00:50:52.000 But we've had the opposite.

00:50:53.000 And I was part of the Conservatives because I think, 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.

00:51:05.000 We really do.

00:51:06.000 And we try and ignore everything it's done and think that maybe, maybe, just maybe, they might become Conservative again.

00:51:15.000 But, and then you're like, hang on, there's this other party that is actually saying everything that I believe in, and is the real Conservative party with a small c, and that's why they're joining.

00:51:26.000 But as I said, everyone who joins won't be in government, but anyone can join.

00:51:31.000 You know, we could have, we could have, you know, we've had a green councillor defect.

00:51:35.000 Because, look, I'll be honest with you.

00:51:38.000 Also, also, by the way, politics is not, is not a permanent damnation.

00:51:42.000 Right?

00:51:43.000 It's not a life sentence.

00:51:44.000 It is, as far as I'm concerned.

00:51:45.000 It's not a, like, well, well.

00:51:46.000 No, I'm joking.

00:51:47.000 It's not a life sentence, right?

00:51:48.000 Yeah.

00:51:49.000 So, so, so, so it's almost like, even in crime, you know, you, you, you can atone for your sins.

00:51:53.000 Yes, but there are more...

00:51:55.000 Has all these people atone for their sins?

00:51:56.000 The party hasn't atone for their sins.

00:51:58.000 But, but, for instance, you mentioned January.

00:52:00.000 I mean, one thing he did say, so I was quite sceptical, and then his speech, he said something that really resonated with me, and he worded it better than I ever could, where he said, they are so compromised that they can no longer speak for the people.

00:52:12.000 And that's how I feel the Conservative party is.

00:52:15.000 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 saying, I'm innocent.

00:52:25.000 He can't really admit it.

00:52:26.000 But what I...

00:52:27.000 Leila, all I'm trying to get you to address is, you're welcoming these criminals into your party, according to some people...

00:52:32.000 Was it not criminals?

00:52:33.000 I'm continuing your metaphor.

00:52:34.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:52:35.000 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.

00:52:44.000 That's how some people see it.

00:52:46.000 And I can understand it.

00:52:47.000 All I can say is, Nigel's political view and sense, I've always trusted, and he made the decision, and I think it's the good decision, because what it signals, forget 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.

00:53:11.000 Right?

00:53:12.000 And if that thought process accelerates Nigel Farage being Prime Minister, then for me, anything that does that is in the national interest.

00:53:23.000 And when you have big players, whether you like Generic or not, but he is a big player in the Conservative party...

00:53:28.000 I wasn't criticising Generic.

00:53:29.000 Oh.

00:53:30.000 I was talking about Jake Berry.

00:53:31.000 Well, I didn't...

00:53:32.000 Jake Berry...

00:53:33.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:53:34.000 Listen, I haven't really heard what he said.

00:53:35.000 That's fine.

00:53:36.000 Carry on.

00:53:37.000 But when you have big players joining, and really eviscerating the Conservative party, if that accelerates a reformed government, then for me, it's a patriotic duty for me to support it, because it's in the national interest for everyone that we do have a reformed government.

00:53:52.000 There must be a part of you that is worried when you have someone like Nadeem Zahawi joining reform, and particularly his behaviour during Covid, with vaccine passports. 0.99

00:54:03.000 We've spoken about civil liberties.

00:54:05.000 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.

00:54:14.000 I agree with that.

00:54:15.000 A hundred percent.

00:54:16.000 I do.

00:54:17.000 I do.

00:54:18.000 I mean, my teenagers are not...

00:54:19.000 My kids are not vaccinated.

00:54:21.000 I remember I was pregnant during Covid, and I had every single strain, literally.

00:54:27.000 And every two days, I'd get a call from the NHS.

00:54:30.000 Please, can you get vaccinated?

00:54:32.000 In the end, I'm like, for God's sake, this is harassment.

00:54:34.000 I've had it.

00:54:36.000 They didn't take in natural immunity at all.

00:54:38.000 It was completely disregarded, which is the most...

00:54:42.000 Anyway, as I said, and I think Nadeem said in his press conference, he is a foot soldier.

00:54:49.000 Anyone can join, and I think Nadeem is a very successful businessman, if you remove that aspect of his political career, which I agree I did not agree with at all.

00:55:00.000 In fact, it's during that period that I started inching away from the Conservative Party and having my doubts.

00:55:05.000 You know, we could only walk in those days, and I'd go on long walks.

00:55:08.000 One of my closest friends is a real lefty, you know, she's an Oxford grad, an environmentalist.

00:55:13.000 And we used to have long, long...

00:55:15.000 I think I did, like, literally half a million steps, and I'd be like, who the hell does this government think it is?

00:55:20.000 You know, who are they to tell me what to do?

00:55:23.000 And then you'd hear, you know, the number six was an arbitrary number that you could have at your house.

00:55:26.000 But he is a successful businessman, and I think successful businessmen who have created something from nothing could be a benefit.

00:55:34.000 But again, he did say he was a foot soldier, and that's how it is.

00:55:40.000 As I said, anyone can join. You know, we're not a closed shop.

00:55:43.000 And I'll tell you why this is so important, Leyla.

00:55:45.000 And it's because one of the great privileges of doing this show, both for me and Constantine, is we get to talk to ordinary people about what's going on in the world.

00:55:54.000 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 something.

00:56:01.000 The reason we're pressing you about this particular issue is because I feel the next general election, this is it.

00:56:10.000 We're drinking in the last chance saloon.

00:56:11.000 100%.

00:56:12.000 We're drinking in the last chance saloon culturally, economically, societally.

00:56:16.000 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.

00:56:24.000 And when I talk to people on the streets, it's ordinary, regular people.

00:56:28.000 They've lost faith in democracy. They've lost faith in democracy.

00:56:31.000 They've lost faith in party politics. And they've lost faith in politicians.

00:56:35.000 And that is a very dangerous place for society to be in.

00:56:38.000 100%. I mean, until reform, I'd lost faith in democracy, to be honest, because I felt I was voting for something and getting the complete opposite.

00:56:47.000 And I campaigned under the Tory banner across the country and the year before the general election.

00:56:54.000 And the number one message I got, it wasn't like cost of living. It was you lot are in it for yourselves.

00:56:59.000 And that really resonated with me. People really felt that politicians were doing politics for themselves.

00:57:06.000 And the Conservative Party was there to serve itself. And people, that is, for me, the main difference between reform.

00:57:15.000 We're not some 100-year-old, 200-year-old party that's, you know, badge of, like, honour to be.

00:57:21.000 Reform is not why we're there. We're there because we really have had enough and we wanted what's best for the country.

00:57:28.000 And people who come over from the Conservatives are doing the same. You know, they want to fundamentally fix what they were part of breaking.

00:57:38.000 And, 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?

00:57:49.000 Leila, one other issue I want to raise with you. You actually alluded to it a number of times.

00:57:55.000 You talked about burqas and you talked about parts of London feeling like a Muslim, I don't remember the words you used exactly,

00:58:00.000 but Muslim city, Muslim ghetto, whatever you want to call it.

00:58:03.000 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, etc.

00:58:12.000 Why do you think that's happened?

00:58:14.000 I think so. We saw it across the Middle East over the past few decades. You saw it in Egypt where my parents are from.

00:58:23.000 You know, my mum showed me pictures where people were in bikinis and swimsuits on the beach.

00:58:27.000 Now you go to a beach, everyone's in full burqa in the sea, all in black. 1.00

00:58:31.000 In the Middle East, it's because there's no social mobility at all. Wealth is really accumulated very much at the top. 0.99

00:58:41.000 There's no welfare, there's nothing, and people turn to religion and it's exploited by radical Islamic leaders in that sense. 0.96

00:58:52.000 And I think the reason it is here is because we have let people into the country in massive amounts of numbers with no filter who hate the country.

00:59:05.000 You know, you have let people in. Some of the people we've let in would be considered radical Muslims in the parts they are and would be nowhere near government, 0.52

00:59:16.000 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. 0.79

00:59:23.000 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 18 months paid for by the taxpayer. 0.81

00:59:32.000 This is someone who was part of the Muslim Brotherhood and convicted. Muslim Brotherhood, for your viewers, they are the founding fathers of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. 0.83

00:59:41.000 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. 1.00

00:59:49.000 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. 0.60

00:59:57.000 You have people, I don't, you know, and I know Merkel let in all the Syrian refugees, despite other, other European countries begging her not to, 1.00

01:00:06.000 into our country. We don't have a government whose sole purpose is to protect the British public and the British way of life.

01:00:14.000 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. 1.00

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01:01:53.000 Why do they hate the country? Because it's not a Muslim country. They want it to be a Muslim country. 1.00

01:01:58.000 I speak to some. I don't speak. I hear some. They do want it to be a Muslim country. 0.95

01:02:03.000 But not only that, they somehow blame Britain for all the woes of the Middle East or the woes of their country or, you know, what's going on in Palestine or what's going on, I don't know where.

01:02:15.000 And they blame it. And they don't come with a love of country or Great Britain.

01:02:22.000 They don't come being, I want to come. I want to embrace it. I want to work. I want to do well. You know, I want my kids to grow up British.

01:02:29.000 That's not why they come. You know, they come and they're like, you know what, I can go there.

01:02:33.000 I can bring in 20 of my family members. I can live for free. I can do what I want. I can say what I want.

01:02:39.000 And if the host nation, you know, and if anyone from the host nation complains, they actually call them racist.

01:02:45.000 They get the blame. That's what's going on. Do they think they see us as weak? Do I think what?

01:02:50.000 Do you think they see us as weak? I think they see us as suckers. Yeah. 0.99

01:02:55.000 You know, as big, you know, I had to prosecute one guy literally had like receding hairline, almost white hair.

01:03:02.000 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? 1.00

01:03:08.000 It's such a rich country. But anyway, no war there. And he would be charged with robbery, burglary in the house.

01:03:14.000 Guess what? He said he's 16 years old. Right. So he was treated as not an adult.

01:03:22.000 And when you're not an adult, you can't be remanded in custody for a crime.

01:03:25.000 So he'd commit crimes on a government. And the public prosecutor would stand up and go, he's a child.

01:03:31.000 And you could almost see him laughing. You could almost see him calling his mates in Kuwait going, mate, man, I come here.

01:03:37.000 I've got a free house. I rob houses. And they're arguing for hours over whether I'm 16 or not.

01:03:43.000 You know, it's farcical. And the public prosecutor would stand up and say, he cannot be remanded in custody.

01:03:48.000 He's underage. And then the judge would be like, well, we're going to have to assign a publicly paid age assessor.

01:03:55.000 God knows what that entails. That's how ridiculous it is. 0.95

01:04:00.000 And for your viewers, I was in court once and a woman turns up in a burqa in the dock. 0.95

01:04:05.000 And I'm like, I make an application to the judge. I'm like, judge, could you please remove her burqa? 1.00

01:04:09.000 I have no idea who this person is. And the judge says, no, these are religious sensitivities, Madame Prosecutor.

01:04:15.000 We cannot allow her to remove her burqa. And at that moment, I realized we're not equal under the law, actually. 1.00

01:04:21.000 You cannot go to court with a hat. Right. This person, I don't even know if it was a lady, sounded like one, 0.96

01:04:27.000 had her complete face covered and I had to conduct a hearing with it. 1.00

01:04:32.000 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. 0.96

01:04:40.000 And I think you have seen it in other parts of Europe as well. 0.98

01:04:43.000 But I think people are recognizing they don't want to be run by cowards anymore. 0.85

01:04:48.000 They, yeah. And when we're not being run by cowards, what will our immigration 1.00

01:04:53.000 and also domestic policy in this area look like to address these challenges that we now face?

01:04:58.000 So I think there will be, so for instance, for, there will be no, if you're a foreigner, you can't access benefits.

01:05:05.000 Tick. You'll get a lot rid of a lot of illegal immigration. 1.00

01:05:08.000 A massive, massive amount. And a lot of legal immigration as well.

01:05:12.000 That's not contributing. Yeah, of course.

01:05:14.000 So big tick. Congratulations. Great policy.

01:05:16.000 Also, we will not rely on foreign cheap labor because what happens when you rely on foreign cheap labor?

01:05:19.000 They come, oh yeah, they're working, but it's so, their salary is so low.

01:05:23.000 The cost of living is so high.

01:05:25.000 They're still in that drain.

01:05:26.000 They're getting benefits.

01:05:27.000 Agreed. Okay, so sorted.

01:05:29.000 No benefits for foreign nationals. What else? 1.00

01:05:31.000 No benefits for foreign nationals. 1.00

01:05:32.000 And when you, when you remove that, you will have British people put into social housing. 1.00

01:05:38.000 You will put, you will put British people at the top of the queue for everything. 1.00

01:05:42.000 And I think you will see a fundamental change.

01:05:44.000 You will remove ourselves from the ECHR because the ECHR was never meant to prevent us from deporting illegal migrants. 0.97

01:05:52.000 It was never meant to undermine our sovereignty.

01:05:54.000 And I think that is, I think the world needs to know that we don't really care.

01:05:59.000 All we care about is what happens in our country.

01:06:02.000 We don't care what you think of us.

01:06:04.000 And we're definitely not going to let a judge in Strasbourg tell us what to do or who we can and cannot keep.

01:06:10.000 And we want Britain to thrive again.

01:06:14.000 You know, we have massively de-industrialized as a result of net zero.

01:06:20.000 It is madness, you know, and China's clever because it doesn't go into war. 0.59

01:06:24.000 It just slowly de-industrializes the world and supplies us with everything.

01:06:28.000 We're so reliant on it for things.

01:06:29.000 We used to be the workshop of the world.

01:06:31.000 And now everything we used to make, we import from China.

01:06:34.000 So I think I'd like to see an industrial plan that puts Britain back on the industrial map.

01:06:43.000 You know, and we don't have that right now.

01:06:45.000 We don't make anything.

01:06:47.000 And I think once we have a thriving economy, we only, 60%, so I speak to farmers.

01:06:53.000 We speak about the inheritance tax for 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.

01:07:06.000 And so we only have, we only realize 60% of our food is homegrown, 40% is not.

01:07:11.000 And I'd like to see that flourish.

01:07:14.000 I'd like to see us grow more food.

01:07:16.000 I'd like to see less focus on environmental, almost removed, because it's weakened us.

01:07:22.000 And a focus on what we can make, what we can grow.

01:07:25.000 And British people focused on it.

01:07:27.000 Upskilling British people. 1.00

01:07:29.000 If you need a coder right now or someone to build you an AI platform, you don't look for someone in Britain, you look for someone abroad.

01:07:35.000 It's demand and supply, right?

01:07:37.000 We don't have enough.

01:07:38.000 Even my kids who are taking computer science, let's say in A-levels or GCSE, they're like, mum, 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.

01:07:48.000 So we're not even teaching the kids the jobs of the future at all.

01:07:52.000 My kids, I still get called because my kids' handwriting is bad.

01:07:55.000 You know, I'm like, don't tell me about his handwriting.

01:07:57.000 I want to know how quick his touch typing is.

01:07:59.000 You know, I want to see touch typing competitions, hackathons all across schools.

01:08:03.000 We don't have that.

01:08:04.000 In fact, I went to speak at the Adam Smith Institute last week and I spoke to amazing young guys who have hackathons across.

01:08:09.000 And they're like, we've spoken to the government.

01:08:11.000 We want to support them, but they're not.

01:08:13.000 And they're like, we're getting poached from Dubai.

01:08:15.000 You know, I want us to be leaders in AI and technology.

01:08:20.000 But I know that we need, obviously, a new energy plan because, you know, that's heavily reliant.

01:08:26.000 But we also need to embrace that.

01:08:29.000 If you are disabled or if you cannot go into work, but you are, you can learn technical skills.

01:08:35.000 You know, you can learn data analysis.

01:08:36.000 You can learn AI engineering.

01:08:38.000 You can learn all this at home.

01:08:40.000 And that's what I want to see.

01:08:41.000 I want to see those nine million people that cannot go to work back into work one way or another. 0.99

01:08:49.000 I think also a real significant challenge, not the main challenge, but it's a challenge that we see in our society politically, is the rise of sectarian politics.

01:08:59.000 Yeah.

01:09:00.000 And I find that terrifying, if I'm being honest with you.

01:09:03.000 The fact that you get MPs in parliament talking about helping to build an airport in a remote region of Pakistan.

01:09:11.000 I'm going, is this some kind of weird satire that I've found myself watching?

01:09:15.000 And that, again, goes in with immigration.

01:09:17.000 You know, you have put a certain demographic from a certain country.

01:09:21.000 You've flooded a certain area that they've managed to control the electoral process of it.

01:09:27.000 And that's why it's got to change.

01:09:29.000 It's not just the electoral process.

01:09:31.000 Well, they vote the people in.

01:09:32.000 Yeah, they vote the people in.

01:09:34.000 But it's also, you look at what's happened with Makabe Tel Aviv.

01:09:37.000 I know.

01:09:38.000 And then he gets to resign.

01:09:40.000 He's not even fired, the head of the police.

01:09:43.000 I think we should talk about it very briefly.

01:09:45.000 And you should tell people because there's people in America who are really interested in this.

01:09:49.000 And I don't think it's got enough coverage, if I'm being honest.

01:09:52.000 No, I mean, so what happened is, was that the police cancelled Makabe Tel Aviv fans coming to a football match because they said that there'll be, you know, there'll be fights, there'll be riots, there'll be protests.

01:10:04.000 And they basically, the message they sent to Jewish people was, if you're in danger, we're going to ban you.

01:10:11.000 We're not going to stop the danger that presents to you. 0.94

01:10:14.000 And that is a horrible message for Jewish people.

01:10:17.000 And the head of the police actually presented false evidence, lied about something that happened in Amsterdam, and he admitted it.

01:10:25.000 What would your viewers think should happen then?

01:10:28.000 He should be fired with shame.

01:10:30.000 What happened?

01:10:31.000 He got to resign at 52.

01:10:33.000 That is the problem.

01:10:34.000 There is no accountability.

01:10:35.000 But even amongst MPs, you know, they get it wrong and they're like, you know, we're really sorry we got it wrong.

01:10:38.000 We'll get it right next time.

01:10:39.000 But they still stay in their jobs.

01:10:41.000 It's the same with the rape gangs across the country.

01:10:44.000 You know, well, we're really sorry.

01:10:45.000 We're going to do a review.

01:10:46.000 We're going to do this.

01:10:47.000 We're only talking about going after the perpetrators.

01:10:50.000 The perpetrators are one slice.

01:10:52.000 I want to go after the social workers, the politicians, the police officers.

01:10:55.000 And now you learn, by the way, that Makabe Tel Aviv, the head of the police, who was on his recruitment panel.

01:11:02.000 Who recruited him, the head of the local mosque.

01:11:05.000 And it all starts to come into play that it's all one cabal.

01:11:11.000 Right?

01:11:12.000 What is the head of the mosque doing appointing the head of the police?

01:11:16.000 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.

01:11:29.000 And sometimes you think about it, you think it's so big and it's so entrenched.

01:11:34.000 Like you say, there's so much to do.

01:11:36.000 But I think it has to come down to accountability.

01:11:38.000 And that's what I'd like to see in London.

01:11:40.000 You get it wrong, you're out.

01:11:41.000 There's no sorries.

01:11:42.000 You know, because this is public money, not only public perception and public trust, but it's also public safety.

01:11:49.000 For instance, Mark Riley looked us in the eye and so did Sadiq Khan and say there are no grooming gangs.

01:11:54.000 There are no rape gangs in London.

01:11:56.000 Nothing like that exists here.

01:11:57.000 Yet I read victims' testimonials, one from Oxford, saying that she was driven to London.

01:12:02.000 There were hundreds of men and she was never asked about them.

01:12:07.000 Another woman and 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.

01:12:17.000 And she was gang raped in that house. 0.99

01:12:20.000 And that was in Wasadiq Khan or just before he became to power.

01:12:25.000 And yet they looked us in the eye and said nothing happened here.

01:12:29.000 But only under public pressure did they say, oh, well, hang on, we're reviewing 9000 cases just because it was public.

01:12:35.000 How do you get 9000 cases of sexual rape, of rape gangs wrong?

01:12:40.000 How do you get that? How do you get that wrong?

01:12:42.000 But he's still in power. Right.

01:12:44.000 And the police is going to review the cases that they originally discarded.

01:12:48.000 It's they're doing their own homework.

01:12:50.000 And I think that's what people feel is that there is no accountability.

01:12:53.000 I don't want to hear sorry anymore.

01:12:54.000 I want people to lose their jobs.

01:12:55.000 I want people to be prosecuted for their mistakes.

01:12:58.000 Because the fact that he said I wasn't aware.

01:13:01.000 I was aware that he said something akin to that.

01:13:04.000 But when I was teaching, I taught a victim of the grooming gang.

01:13:07.000 Did you?

01:13:08.000 Yeah.

01:13:09.000 Wow.

01:13:10.000 And that was in East London.

01:13:11.000 That was in East London.

01:13:12.000 And that was 10 or so years ago, maybe a bit more.

01:13:14.000 So that and that was that we knew that because we were we were coordinating with social workers.

01:13:19.000 So he must have known.

01:13:20.000 Oh, he must have known.

01:13:21.000 And I don't know if you read the Express did an article. 0.99

01:13:24.000 Basically, what happens is that they fly in men from a certain part of Pakistan to come and gang rape these girls. 0.95

01:13:31.000 They they they they send photos of the girls to the guys in Pakistan and they they bring them in to gang rape the girls. 0.81

01:13:39.000 And that's why I wrote an article saying if Shabana Mahmood is really serious, then she would.

01:13:45.000 And Pakistan's not taking back these people. 0.97

01:13:48.000 If she was really serious, which she's not, she would issue visa bans against Pakistan until they took these people back. 0.96

01:13:56.000 We don't want them in our country. 0.78

01:13:58.000 But she hasn't done that, obviously.

01:14:00.000 And you've got to ask yourself why.

01:14:02.000 I mean, she talks a good game.

01:14:04.000 It's so easy to talk a good game.

01:14:06.000 You know, she said, oh, you know, these are the toughest measures we've ever had.

01:14:09.000 And she she issued visa bans from DLC, Congo and Angola.

01:14:14.000 What? Why?

01:14:16.000 Hardly any of those come on a boat.

01:14:18.000 No, we want to see from Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, but they're not doing that.

01:14:24.000 They always talk a good game.

01:14:26.000 And actually, you know what?

01:14:27.000 You know what would be really a good game is that if you come on a boat, the moment you enter a boat in France,

01:14:31.000 that you know that if you arrive here, you will be prosecuted.

01:14:34.000 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.

01:14:40.000 That's what they call far reaching.

01:14:41.000 They just tinker around the edges.

01:14:43.000 You need someone to come and literally blow it up.

01:14:48.000 Not, you know, just it's got to stop.

01:14:50.000 It cannot be business as usual.

01:14:52.000 And that's what we have with the two parties.

01:14:54.000 It's just business as usual because the status quo suits them.

01:14:58.000 Leila, thank you so much for coming on.

01:15:01.000 Thank you.

01:15:02.000 Before we head to Substack where our supporters get to ask you their questions,

01:15:06.000 what's the one thing that we're not talking about that we should be?

01:15:10.000 I think people are not talking enough about how successive governments have managed to divide us into different sections.

01:15:17.000 You know, you're Muslim, you're Jewish, you're Christian, you grew up in a council estate, you didn't, you're gay, you're not. 1.00

01:15:23.000 And that's got to stop because, in London anyway, we're all Londoners.

01:15:29.000 And I want to be the candidate, the mayor that unites everyone under the banner of London.

01:15:36.000 I don't want to divide and conquer.

01:15:38.000 And that's what I think that's what they've managed to do in the past few years.

01:15:40.000 And you've seen it across the world.

01:15:41.000 You know, we're all put into our own little demographic box and we're all meant to pick against each other for certain rights, certain privileges,

01:15:50.000 or even just political attention.

01:15:53.000 And that's got to stop.

01:15:54.000 We're all human beings.

01:15:55.000 And I don't want us divided anymore.

01:16:00.000 A good message to end on.

01:16:01.000 Thank you so much for coming on the show.

01:16:02.000 Head on over to Substack where Leila's going to answer your questions. 1.00

01:16:07.000 What will it take for you to attract support to defeat Sadiq Khan?

01:16:11.000 Because London is pretty lefty, liberal, Remainer.

01:16:14.000 How are you going to beat him?

01:16:20.000 Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything, like packing a spare stick.

01:16:38.000 I like to be prepared.

01:16:40.000 That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline.

01:16:44.000 It's good to know, just in case.

01:16:46.000 Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a trained responder.

01:16:50.000 Anytime.

01:16:51.000 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.

01:16:55.000 Women areניceğiz for the 315-383.

01:17:00.000 Now she lives here in Canada.

01:17:01.000 But London so live 149-393.

01:17:03.000 Overall, it's a basic sign of音.

01:17:04.000 gerade being discriminated to help humans speak for people.

01:17:06.040 Wow.

01:17:07.000 If you look실elly, they live well at the desk, 1.00

01:17:09.000 once more digits call...

01:17:10.000 ...and the miseryprendlee redeytes in England,

01:17:11.000 more comfortable walking people.

01:17:12.000 ...and in tell this.

01:17:13.000 If you look at the 질문,

01:17:16.000 we've got too many barriers to open arms for permission.

01:17:18.000 It's the hardest thing on our Facebook divide by John Di�도.

01:17:19.000 Anyway, I will300623.

01:17:20.000 So I got an escalatory question on stock myself.

TRIGGERnometry - January 25, 2026

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

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