NHS nurse Amy Gallagher is SDP's London mayoral candidate

Amy Gallagher gained media attention after bringing a lawsuit against the NHS over critical race theory

NHS nurse and psychotherapist Amy Gallagher has been selected as the Social Democratic Party candidate for the 2024 London mayoral election.

Ms Gallagher, from south London, said she was standing in the election as she wanted to "push back on woke ideology".

The SDP has existed since 1990 and its leader, William Clouston, has described the party as "conservative left".

Ms Gallagher, 35. said the SDP aligned with her "culturally conservative and economical left" views.

The mayoral elections will take place on 2 May.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Gallagher said London had become "more divided" and that the current mayor was "spending too much money on campaigns that are all about virtue signalling". If elected, her top priority would be to "defund divisive diversity and inclusive spending".

Her other two priorities would be to "depoliticise the police" and "improve public transport infrastructure and make all transport free for under-25s".

She added that she was "firmly against" the Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and would scrap both.

Ms Gallagher gained media attention after bringing a lawsuit against the NHS, accusing it of forcing critical race theory on to people.

Who are the mayoral candidates?

Ten other people have been chosen as candidates for the London mayoral elections. They are:

• Shyam Batra, independent

• Rob Blackie, Liberal Democrats

• Natalie Campbell, independent

• Howard Cox, Reform UK

• Zoe Garbett, Green Party

• Tarun Ghulati, independent

• Susan Hall, Conservative Party

• Rayhan Haque, independent

• Sadiq Khan, Labour Party

• Andreas Michli, independent

In the previous mayoral election, the SDP candidate Steve Kelleher gained 0.3% of the vote. Ms Gallagher hopes to improve on this result by getting the party's "message out there more" and using the 2024 election "as an attempt for us to grow".

She hopes people will vote for her because she is offering "a new and fresh kind of politics".

"Most people feel Labour and the Conservatives have let people down. I am genuine, authentic and thinking about politics in a really serious way," she said. "I care and believe in what I represent."

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