Several businesses linked to Reform’s mayoral candidate struck off
Reform England’s London mayoral election candidate has caused many businesses to be closed after failing to produce legally required documents.
Laila Cunningham was announced as the party’s candidate for the 2028 election at a press conference alongside Nigel Farage earlier this week.
The City of Westminster councilor and former criminal prosecutor has vowed to appoint Sir Sadiq Khan, promising an “all-out war” on crime in the capital.
But it has now emerged that a company listing the 48-year-old as a shareholder and director, of which he is also a director, has been encumbered by Companies House.
She and her husband, Michael Cunningham, were co-owners of Kitchin Table Ltd., who were also directors, according to the official watchdog. The company, which operated an app that organized co-working sessions in women’s homes, was dissolved in August 2024, following the publication of a mandatory strike decision in June of the same year.
She and her husband were also directors of a second company, MGIC Ltd, in which Mr Cunningham had a majority stake, which was spun out in August 2023, a year after the earlier strike case ended.
Although failure to file company accounts is a criminal offense under UK law, prosecution is rare and your company is more likely to be dissolved instead.
Speaking to Times Radio on Friday, Ms Cunningham insisted she had “not breached company law” and that “nothing wrong had ever been done” by failing to open company accounts.
“So I haven’t violated company law. Like a lot of companies, I really don’t like the implication that this is a crime,” he said.
“I tried different business ideas. Some became inactive. And this happens to thousands of people. Meanwhile, they were all inactive. Year after year. There was never anything wrong. No one got scammed. And I passed all CPS inspections right after that.”
Asked whether not filing company accounts was a breach of the law, he said: “Companies House routinely screens out companies that are inactive or do not file. It is a paper enforcement exercise. The system is designed to remove dead companies from the register. This means hundreds of thousands of UK companies are closed every year. The vast majority, because they are dormant and out of management.”
“It’s not a mistake. It’s just a way to get rid of dead companies. A lot of people do it.”
“And you know what? We should reward that because I was taking a risk. All my money went into that. Unfortunately, it didn’t work because of Covid. And that’s what happened.”
In the financial year between April 2024 and March 2025, 726,813 companies were dissolved by Companies House.
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Like many entrepreneurs, Laila has set up small companies over the years to test new business ideas. Some have become inactive over time, causing management disruption. This is something that happens to hundreds of thousands of dormant companies every year.”
“Companies House routinely screens inactive companies to remove dead companies from the register. Laila has never done anything wrong and she has passed all enhanced CPS vetting and background checks.”
