By Cameron Blackshaw
Reform UK’s first directly-elected London councillor has outlined a bold vision for the city, calling for outer boroughs to split from the Greater London Authority (GLA).
Alan Cook won the Bromley Common and Holwood by-election on July 24 in what he believes was a major step in showing the rest of the city the strength of the Reform vote as well as exposing what he deems Conservative weaknesses.
Alan Cook is Reform’s first directly-elected London councillor. Picture: Bromley Council
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It is not just a win, it is a huge win. I have pushed over the first Tory domino, so to speak. There is nowhere that is Tory-controlled now that we cannot win.”
Having taken up his first post in public office, Cllr Cook aims to “make a bit of a nuisance” of himself at Bromley council by scrutinising the actions of the Tory-controlled local authority.
Cllr Cook said: “What I do want to do is find out how the council runs, operates and works, and I want to treat it as a business.
“I do not think dogma and political ideology have a place in local government. I think they should just purely be run as a business, looking after the core services.”
Bromley GLA split
Cllr Cook said Reform’s leader Nigel Farage was “really enthusiastic” about his proposal to have Bromley split from the GLA.
The move would have massive implications for both the borough and the rest of the city, but he believes that the people of Bromley would benefit from some independence from the capital and the Mayor’s office.
Cllr Alan Cook said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage backs his plans. Picture: Stuart Mitchell
Cllr Cook added: “It is big changes like that which will really make a difference to the people here by not sending money to [Sadiq] Khan for his pet and vanity projects which we do not want to pay for.”
Referring to policies enacted by the GLA, such as ULEZ, he said: “They may reflect well and work in inner London, in the inner city with high rises and high density and high traffic, but they will not work and actually be counterproductive in places like Biggin Hill.
“It is just rolling fields. You can go and take a picture, and you will not see a single house or a single car, and yet there is ULEZ there. It is a travesty. It is so wrong in that area to inflict that on those people.”
Although Cllr Cook is not yet sure what the best way to implement the split from the GLA would be, he knows that Bromley would have to either go at it alone or combine with other London borough councils that would want to split as well.
He said: “Our history is with Kent, but Kent’s already a large, £2 billion council. I think we would be better off as a unitary council by ourselves, or with Bexley, or with Bexley and Havering.
“Even though they are on the other side of the river, the demographics are very similar, so I think that would work really well.”
He thinks that Bromley council should split from the GLA. Picture: Joe Coughlan.
Would it really be that simple?
All 32 London boroughs are unitary authorities already, but the GLA can override them, or have the final say, on some issues.
The GLA is responsible for transport, major planning, police and crime, fire and rescue, and housing policy, so Bromley would need to take control of those functions for itself if it were legally able to split from the GLA.
Legislation would likely be required to override the Greater London Authority Act of 1999, which established the GLA and came after a referendum of Londoners who backed it.
Reform’s first London victory
Cllr Cook recounted the events of his victory night, claiming at first that the other councillors, particularly Conservative ones, were initially friendly towards him.
Cllr Alan Cook with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Picture: Stuart Mitchell
But once it was becoming clear that a Reform win was on the cards, he claims the atmosphere turned sour.
He said: “They would not look me in the eye. They knew that this had happened, and for it to happen here in the Tories’ backyard, which has always been a sort of true blue area.”
London now has six Reform councillors; however, Cllr Cook’s is the only seat to have been won in an election. The rest have been through sitting councillors defecting from other parties.
There are two Reform representatives on Barnet council, one in Waltham Forest, one in Wandsworth, and one in Westminster.
Cllr Cook said that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was “really happy” with the by-election victory.
He added: “Nigel really wanted this. He wanted this win. It is his back garden, and where he grew up.
“Nigel really wanted this. He wanted this win…”
“I have got a good relationship with Nigel, Richard [Tice] and the other MPs, but what I did not really want to do was to call on them to come down. I thought, let’s make sure this is a homegrown win.
“Conversely, the Tories threw everything at it. Even on polling day, they brought their big gun down. The biggest gun they have, which misfired, and they still lost.”
The “biggest gun” he referred to was Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who joined the party’s candidate Ian Payne to campaign in Bromley.
Cllr Cook views the Conservatives as a “zombie party lost to the country” and thinks many Tory MPs are “liberal democrat socialists” who have strayed too far from the party’s traditional roots.
“If they cannot win a provincial by-election here, when they send the leader of the party down, it sort of tells you that there is a brand problem,” he said.
Cllr Alan Cook in the garden of his Bickley home. Picture: Cameron Blackshaw
Political background
Cllr Cook says he is from Sidcup but moved to Bickley in his early teens and has lived in the area ever since. He has worked in the city for several years in IT for several different financial companies.
He got involved with the Brexit Party in 2019 before joining the Tories as he considered it a “natural home” because of his politics.
But Cllr Cook left the party after disagreeing with other members over how migrant boats crossing the English Channel should be dealt with.
He claimed that Conservatives were not willing to back plans to intercept the boats and send them back to Calais as “it would not look good internationally”, and so he left the party.
He eventually joined Reform and stood for them in last year’s general election in Bromley and Biggin Hill, coming third and receiving 17.5% of votes cast.
He described the “uniparty” of the other large UK political parties as “global socialists” and felt Reform were offering the “only choice” away from this.
Cllr Cook said that a vote for Reform was a “patriotic, nationalistic vote”. “Do you support and love your country or not?” he said.
Cllr Cook said he has identified concerns raised by Bromley residents
Local issues
Cllr Cook said he had identified concerns Bromley residents had shared with him during his election campaign, and he was keen to work on these following his election.
Crime and speeding were two major issues, he said kept coming up on doorsteps. When it came to speeding, he was not in favour of imposing 20mph speed limits on Bromley roads unless they were outside schools.
He was also not keen on building more speed bumps to curb speeding.
He said: “I certainly would not want one outside my house. When a flatbed or a lorry goes over them, the noise they make with everything bouncing around the back is horrible.”
He suggested increasing the frequency of police carrying out random speed checks as he believed this would be an effective deterrent.
However, he was keen to better understand what resources the council had available to it before making a concrete suggestion.
Cllr Cook added: “I am not going to go to the other councillors and say ‘what is the norm here?’ I am very analytical, and my whole career has been about solving other people’s problems.”
He has already begun to communicate with Bromley residents about their concerns via email and has said: “I will be at every meeting I can possibly attend.”