He said: “It’s sad to see that even Newham, a borough that Sir Robin and I managed to lift out of deprivation, has gone completely backwards under a Labour mayor and a Labour council that is now completely out of touch with the communities it was meant to represent.”

He said: “They’re some of them – we are talking to a number of Labour figures.

“There are other Labour figures we’re talking to, and you will see them over the course of the next weeks and months.”

A spokesperson said: “If Clive Furness and Robin Wales count as a ‘major London announcement’, Reform really are scraping the barrel.

“Nigel Farage, Laila Cunningham and their allies spend their time talking London down and attacking the success of one of the most proudly multicultural cities in the world.

“Meanwhile, Labour is focused on delivering for London – supporting 240,000 children by ending the two-child cap, cutting energy bills for 3.7million households, expanding free school meals and breakfast clubs, and strengthening protections for 2.7million renters.”

Sadiq Khan torn apart by Labour defector to Reform in brutal attack

Sadiq Khan has come under a fierce attack from a former Labour politician who has defected to Reform UK, with Sir Robin Wales accusing the London mayor of presiding over rising crime, failing public services and a political culture that has abandoned working-class voters.

The extraordinary intervention came as former Newham mayor Wales formally joined Nigel Farage’s Reform UK alongside former Newham councillor Clive Furness.

Farage had been teasing the arrival of Labour figures for weeks, promising that politicians who had previously occupied senior positions within the party would cross over to Reform. The announcement finally came on March 4, when Wales and Furness appeared alongside Farage at a press conference in London.

For Farage, the significance was not simply that two former Labour politicians had changed parties.

It was that Wales had spent decades at the centre of London politics.

He served as Newham’s directly elected mayor from 2002 until 2018 and had previously led the council. Furness also spent more than two decades representing residents on Newham Council.

Their arrival gave Reform a pair of politicians with experience of running and operating inside one of London’s major local authorities.

But Wales’s attack on Khan immediately became one of the most striking elements of the announcement.

Wales takes aim at City Hall

Wales accused Labour of having abandoned its traditional roots and directed particular criticism at the political leadership of London.

He argued that the capital had experienced what he described as “soaring crime” and failing public services under Khan, while claiming that Labour had increasingly prioritised wealthy and professional voters over the working-class communities it historically represented.

Those are political allegations rather than independently established conclusions, but they form a central part of Wales’s explanation for leaving Labour.

His intervention was particularly notable because he had himself been a prominent Labour figure in London for many years.

Wales joined Labour as a young politician and eventually became one of the most recognisable figures in east London local government.

His tenure as Newham mayor coincided with the transformation of the borough around the 2012 Olympic Games. He was involved in the London Olympic delivery process and argued for local residents to benefit from employment and regeneration associated with the Games.

His political relationship with Labour, however, eventually broke down.

He was removed as the party’s candidate in Newham in 2018, after which Rokhsana Fiaz became mayor.

That history is important when assessing his current criticism.

Wales is not a sitting Labour politician who has suddenly crossed the floor at Westminster. He is a former mayor whose relationship with Labour deteriorated years before his move to Reform.

London Labour consequently sought to minimise the significance of the announcement, arguing that neither Wales nor Furness had been involved in the Labour movement for some time.

Farage wants Reform to move deeper into London

The announcement nevertheless serves a clear organisational purpose for Reform.

Wales has been appointed the party’s London director of local government, while Furness has been selected as Reform’s candidate for mayor of Newham.

That means their roles extend beyond political symbolism.

Reform is attempting to establish a more substantial local-government presence in London, an environment where its organisation remains less established than in parts of England where the party has recently made electoral gains.

Farage has acknowledged that Reform needs greater experience in local government.

The recruitment of Wales provides the party with someone who has spent decades dealing with council administration, budgets, regeneration and local political disputes.

For Reform, that experience could prove useful as it attempts to convince voters that it can operate effectively at council level rather than simply campaign on national issues.

The Khan criticism goes beyond crime

Wales’s criticism of Khan was broader than one issue.

He accused Labour of failing to provide effective public services and argued that the party had become detached from the communities it was originally created to represent.

That reflects a familiar argument made by Reform and other political opponents of Labour: that traditional working-class voters have become increasingly disconnected from the party.

But London’s political landscape makes that argument particularly complicated.

The capital contains some of Britain’s wealthiest neighbourhoods alongside communities experiencing significant deprivation. Its population is also exceptionally diverse, and voters’ political priorities vary considerably between boroughs.

Khan has repeatedly defended his record at City Hall, pointing to policies on transport, housing, policing and the cost of living.

Labour’s response to Wales also stressed policies it says are benefiting Londoners, including support for families, energy costs, school meals and renters.

The dispute is therefore fundamentally political.

Wales presents one interpretation of London’s direction.

Labour presents another.

Neither should be confused with an uncontested assessment of the mayor’s record.

A dramatic break with Labour

For Wales personally, the move represents a dramatic departure from the political organisation that dominated much of his career.

He has acknowledged that Reform has “rough edges” but argued that he believes the party provides an opportunity to change British politics.

His decision is also notable because he has not attempted to disguise the fact that Reform remains a controversial political organisation.

At the announcement, Wales explicitly rejected accusations that Reform is racist and challenged critics to demonstrate why they believed that description applied.

Those comments reflect a broader argument within British politics over Reform’s rhetoric, candidates and policies.

Supporters portray the party as challenging established political orthodoxies.

Critics argue that some of its policies and rhetoric contribute to social division.

The disagreement remains sharply contested.

Furness attacks Labour too

Wales was not alone in directing criticism towards Labour.

Clive Furness, who had served for more than two decades on Newham Council, also argued that Labour had failed London.

He claimed that Newham had gone backwards under Labour’s current administration and criticised what he regarded as increasing political division along ethnic and religious lines.

Furness’s background gives Reform another connection to Newham’s Labour establishment.

He served as a councillor in Canning Town North and held roles connected to social care and community wellbeing.

His decision therefore allows Farage to make a broader argument than simply recruiting one former mayor.

Reform can now point to two people with long histories inside Labour’s London political machine who say they have lost confidence in the party.

Labour dismisses the significance

Labour’s response was blunt.

A London Labour spokesperson said that if Wales and Furness represented a “major London announcement”, then Reform was “scraping the barrel”.

The party emphasised that Wales had been removed by Labour members in Newham in 2018 and argued that neither man had been part of the Labour movement for some time.

Labour also accused Farage and his allies of attacking London’s multicultural identity rather than focusing on what it described as the city’s achievements.

That response highlights the central weakness in the Reform announcement from Labour’s perspective.

Neither man is a serving Labour MP.

Neither was a current senior member of the national Labour government.

Their departure therefore does not alter Labour’s parliamentary numbers.

Its importance lies primarily in London’s local political contest and in the symbolism surrounding two experienced former Labour figures joining Reform.

Newham becomes the immediate battleground

The most concrete test will be Newham itself.

Furness is expected to contest the mayoralty for Reform, placing the party directly into a complicated local political environment.

Newham has been Labour-controlled for decades, but local political competition has increased in recent years.

Analysis of the borough has pointed to financial pressures, disputes over council services and the emergence of independent and Green challengers alongside the traditional parties.

That makes the borough an interesting test for Reform.

The party will not simply be competing against Labour.

It will be operating in a political environment containing Conservatives, Greens, independents and local political organisations.

Wales’s knowledge of the borough could therefore be particularly important.

He knows its political history intimately.

He also understands the internal disputes that have shaped Newham politics for decades.

Whether that translates into electoral support for Reform is a separate question.

Khan remains at the centre of the argument

The attack on Khan also illustrates why London remains such an important political prize.

The mayor controls a substantial political platform and has responsibility for areas including transport, policing strategy, housing and economic development.

That makes City Hall an obvious target for national political challengers.

For Reform, attacking Khan provides a way of connecting national arguments about Labour with highly visible issues affecting Londoners.

For Labour, defending Khan’s record provides an opportunity to highlight policies and investments that it says have benefited the capital.

The clash between the two narratives is likely to intensify as the next electoral contests approach.

A wider test for Farage

Farage’s recruitment strategy now faces a more difficult stage.

Attracting former politicians creates headlines.

Building a functioning local organisation is much harder.

Reform needs candidates, councillors, campaigners and policy specialists who can operate effectively across London’s boroughs.

Wales’s new position as London director of local government suggests the party understands that challenge.

His experience could help Reform establish a more professional local-government operation.

But it also brings his own political history with it.

His years in Newham are part of Reform’s argument for experience, while his departure from Labour and the controversies surrounding his time in office provide opponents with material for criticism.

The party will have to manage both sides of that legacy.

The bigger political message

The most significant aspect of Wales’s defection may ultimately be the message Farage wants voters to take from it.

Reform has frequently been associated with former Conservative politicians.

Bringing in a former Labour mayor allows Farage to argue that his party can attract people from the opposite side of Britain’s traditional political divide.

That does not automatically demonstrate a wider movement among Labour voters or politicians.

But it does provide Reform with a prominent example of a former Labour figure publicly criticising his old party and embracing Farage’s political project.

Wales’s criticism of Khan is therefore part of a larger argument.

He is not merely attacking one mayor.

He is arguing that Labour has changed, that London has suffered as a result, and that Reform can offer an alternative.

Labour strongly disputes that interpretation.

The political battle will ultimately be decided not by the intensity of the rhetoric at a press conference, but by what Londoners make of those competing claims.

For now, the defection has given Farage a new voice in London’s local-government debate and placed Sadiq Khan firmly in the crosshairs of Reform’s campaign.

The next question is whether the former Labour mayor’s extraordinary attack can translate into lasting political support — particularly in Newham, where Wales once wielded considerable influence.

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