The battle to keep Bromley in London may already have been won after Reform appeared to change its tune on planning for another ‘Brexit’.

Nigel Farage’s party has denied it has any plans to split Bromley from the Greater London Authority (GLA) despite Reform councillor Alan Cook saying last summer Mr Farage was “really enthusiastic” about his proposal to have Bromley Council leave the capital. He cited the ULEZ expansion and London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s “pet and vanity projects” that didn’t benefit Bromley as reasons.

Speaking in the borough earlier this month, Mr Farage suggested Bromley residents would want to hold a referendum to decide whether they would remain part of London. Reform has now denied it has any proposals to split Bromley from the GLA.

A Reform UK Bromley spokesman said: “Over the last decade of Sadiq Khan and Labour’s catastrophic leadership it’s only natural that Bromley residents have become increasingly disillusioned with their place in the GLA.

“Whilst the Labour Party has serious questions to answer about its failure to deliver for the outer London boroughs, Reform UK has no plans to take Bromley out of London.”

Following Mr Farage’s prediction that within a few years many residents in Bromley and other outer London boroughs would want to secede from the capital, the MP for Beckenham and Penge launched his ‘Keep Bromley in London’ campaign.

Labour politician Liam Conlon said he launched the campaign in reaction to Mr Farage as he wanted to promote the “tangible benefits” residents enjoy by being part of the GLA. He even hinted at inviting Reform’s candidate for the Mayor of London, Laila Cunningham, to Bromley to debate the issue.

He said: “This isn’t just about your identity, about whether you feel like you’re in Kent or in London. This also comes with some really tangible benefits, like the over 60s Freedom Pass, the disabled person’s Freedom Pass and the Oyster Zip pass for children and young people.”

Mr Conlon wanted to fight back against Reform’s claims that Sir Sadiq was ignoring outer London boroughs like Bromley. He said the new £130m regeneration of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre was a project spearheaded by the Mayor and it wouldn’t be possible without GLA funding.

He said: “That’s going to be such an exciting thing in my constituency for generations of people to come. You place that in jeopardy as well [if you split from the GLA]. There are so many things that being in London comes with and I think it’s really important that we articulate that.”

Mr Conlon admitted the debate over whether Bromley was part of London or Kent divided his constituents, and he felt Reform was trying to capitalise on that division to win votes in next month’s local council elections.

Bromley is a key target for Mr Farage’s party, with YouGov predicting a knife edge result between the Tories and Reform as to who will emerge with the most council seats.

Mr Conlon said: “They’re trying to divide people. The number of times they’ve mentioned Sadiq Khan as part of this campaign. They’re trying to say to people, ‘do you think he should be your Mayor? Leave London and move to Kent’.

“It’s kind of like ‘Make Bromley great again’, a sort of nostalgia of seeing the word Kent on an envelope. I think they’re trying to use that to divide people and it’s classic Reform campaigning.”

2,000 sign petition to stay in London

Despite encountering some support for the GLA split on doorsteps, the Beckenham and Penge MP said most people he had spoken to about his campaign were supportive. He also said 2,000 people signed his petition in a matter of hours when it launched last week, and thousands more had signed it since.

One particular issue that divides those living in the car-reliant borough of Bromley was the Mayor’s decision to expand ULEZ to all 32 boroughs in 2023. Mr Farage has called ULEZ a “monstrous tax on the poor”, but Mr Conlon defended the air quality improvement scheme and said its benefits “far, far outweigh” its downsides.

He referred to the tragic case of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, the nine-year-old girl who died following an asthma attack in 2013 and became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Mr Conlon said his constituency was not far from where Ella lived in Catford by the South Circular, and ULEZ was a bold strategy to try and prevent further deaths like hers.

He said: “Air pollution affects poorer communities more than affluent communities. That’s simply the case. At a time when we’re trying to encourage, particularly children and young people, to actively travel, whether that’s cycling or walking to school, it is a big agenda. We’ve got to tackle air pollution and ULEZ does that in a bold way.”

To read more about Liam Conlon’s ‘Keep Bromley in London’ campaign, visit the website.