Nigel Farage held a rally in Romford on Monday as Reform UK seeks to win control of councils in east London at the May borough elections.
His party’s campaign for the local elections in the capital will focus on crime, housing and immigration.
Reform is seeking to recruit 1,800 candidates to stand in the borough elections.
In an email to party members, encouraging them to stand, London’s mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham stressed: “On May 7th, Londoners will elect their local councillors, the people who decide how your borough is run day to day.
“Councils control housing, planning, parking, licensing, waste collection, youth services, social care, and how your council tax is spent.
“These decisions shape whether your street feels safe, your area is clean, and whether the people who’ve paid in all their lives actually get something back.”
She stressed that local authorities control who gets access to social housing.
“Too many London councils have chosen to prioritise new arrivals over British families and veterans who’ve contributed to this country all their lives,” she claimed.
Ms Cunningham, a Westminster councillor who defected from the Tories to Reform, has also argued that London is unsafe due to the levels of crime.
However, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has slammed Right-wing politicians who he accused of painting a “dystopian picture of London as a city that’s fallen”.
The London Mayor tore into Reform and Tory politicians who he claimed “can’t stand what London represents - a city that’s diverse, progressive and thriving, with a Mayor who happens to be a Muslim”.
He also told ex-Tory Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who defected to Reform, to “stop being a pound shop version of Donald Trump” after he claimed London was unsafe and highlighted an encounter with a man who appeared like “he hadn’t slept for a week” and “looked like somebody that might be violent”.
Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley has stressed that the number of murders recorded in London dropped last year to its lowest level per capita since records began.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell defected from the Conservatives to Reform last month, as did former Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick.
Mr Farage has set Reform the goal of winning councils in London at the May elections.
Labour is facing “fierce battles” to retain at least 12 boroughs in the city at the elections, according to polling expert and Tory peer Lord Hayward.
He stressed that Reform was focusing on “natural targets” for the party in Outer London, which he said included Bexley, Bromley, Havering and Hillingdon.
Labour faces a challenge to hold onto Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet, which it won from the Tories in 2022, with Sir Keir Starmer’s party having plummeted in the polls, including in London to a record low.
Mr Farage led a rally at the Excel Centre in London’s docklands at the start of the year as he seeks to show his party can win in every part of England including the capital.
But his more immediate focus is the Gorton and Denton by-election on February 26.
Reform could “come through the middle” to win the seat, according to Rob Ford, Professor of Political Science at Manchester University, if the Left-leaning vote splits evenly between Labour and the Greens.
