Mayoral election 2024: Reform UK candidate gets seat on London Assembly
Reform UK candidate Alex Wilson has become the first party member elected to the London Assembly.
Wilson, Reform’s parliamentary spokesman for Ilford North, was elected as a London-wide assembly member in what the party described as a “major breakthrough”.
In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, Wilson said: “I’m delighted to say I’ve been elected to the London Assembly where I will work to hold Sadiq Khan to account on ULEZ, on crime on housing, on all these important issues.
“But above all, I want to thank everybody in London who voted Reform UK on Thursday for giving me this fantastic opportunity. I won’t let you down.”
It comes as the local election results as a whole saw Labour win 1,140 council seats, an increase of more than 200; while the Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100.
The Tories are now just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400; and independent candidates won 228 seats, down 28.
The Greens have won 181, up 64, while Reform UK won two, down one.
The party secured its first MP earlier this year when Lee Anderson joined Richard Tice’s outfit – but despite growing support in the polls it has not yet translated its backing into a trend towards securing council seats.
Wilson stood for the Greater London Authority (GLA), London’s regional devolved governing body, in Havering and Redbridge.
The assembly elects members both at constituency level and London-wide, based on the party’s overall vote share.
Howard Cox of pressure group FairFuel UK stood as Reform’s mayoral candidate and secured fifth place with 78,865 votes.
He said: “A huge thank you to the thousands who voted for me in the mayoral election. I am gutted I just missed out on a London Assembly place for Reform UK by a whisker.
“I was happy to be [the] second choice for the party. It meant my colleague Alex Willson did get elected because of my year’s long campaigning with him.
“But what makes me even more angry is over one million Londoners are happy to continue with more anti-driver policies, more violent crime and continuing to have this dishonest mayor destroying our capital city.
“It makes no sense. I remain in and supporting Richard Tice’s insurgent political party.
“And will be campaigning hard for FairFuel UK because Labour will be even worse for the motorist.”
What are the full London-wide Assembly results?
Sian Berry – The Green Party
Susan Hall – Conservatives
Alex Wilson – Reform UK
Caroline Russell – The Green Party
Shaun Bailey – Conservatives
Emma Best – Conservatives
Hina Bokhari – Liberal Democrats
Zack Polanski – The Green Party
Andrew Boff – Conservatives
Elly Baker – Labour
Alessandro Georgiou – Conservatives
What are the constituency London Assembly results?
Barnet & Camden – Anne Clarke (Labour and Co-operative)
Bexley & Bromley – Thomas Turrell (Conservative)
Brent & Harrow – Krupesh Hirani (Labour and Co-operative)
City & East – Unmesh Desai (Labour and Co-operative)
Croydon & Sutton – Neil Garratt (Conservative)
Ealing & Hillingdon – Bassam Mahfouz (Labour)
Enfield & Haringey – Joanne McCartney (Labour and Co-operative)
Greenwich & Lewisham – Len Duvall (Labour and Co-operative)
Havering & Redbridge – Keith Prince (Conservative)
Lambeth & Southwark – Marina Ahmad (Labour and Co-operative)
Merton & Wandsworth – Leonie Cooper (Labour and Co-operative)
North East – Sem Moema (Labour and Co-operative)
South West – Gareth Roberts (Liberal Democrat)
West Central – James Small-Edwards (Labour and Co-operative)