Tom Foot
Tom Foot connects Westminster’s party politics with the concrete decisions taken at City Hall, tracking how shifts in power, budgets and big schemes play out for residents and businesses. He works as a deputy editor across Camden New Journal, Islington Tribune and Westminster Extra, combining a newsroom leadership role with regular reporting on local government and elections. His coverage is rooted in Westminster council chambers, election counts and committee papers, with a focus on clear detail rather than commentary.
City Hall elections and control of Westminster
Foot’s political reporting regularly follows who runs Westminster and how control changes hands between parties. He covered Labour’s historic capture of Westminster council in 2022, documenting the moment the party “seize[d] control” after decades of Conservative dominance. In 2024 he reported on Labour’s “win win in Westminster”, giving ward-level and constituency-level vote totals, percentages and turnouts for contests including Cities of London and Westminster and Queen’s Park and Maida Vale.
He then tracked the Conservatives “tak[ing] back City of Westminster from Labour” at the 2026 local elections, linking the result to official council data and setting out the new political reality in simple terms.
Across these pieces he supplies hard numbers - majorities, vote shares and turnout - and names of winning and losing candidates, so readers can see exactly how power has shifted. When new administrations are formed, he follows through with coverage such as the “New City Hall line-up”, detailing who holds key posts in the council’s leadership.
Council budgets, cuts and public services
Budget decisions and their impact on services are a second core strand of Foot’s work. In “Spending spree budget before polls?” he reports on councillors clashing over a £19million drawdown from reserves to keep council tax frozen, outlining the political calculus around using savings ahead of elections.
In “Parties in clash over ‘£100m budget cuts’” he shows council chiefs writing to the prime minister over planned reductions and tax changes affecting wealthy landowners, framing the story around the scale of proposed cuts and the local authority’s response.
His reporting on “Cyber attack chaos ahead of Christmas” follows an unprecedented hack on the council’s IT systems, listing the specific services residents cannot access - from waste collections and certificate orders to licensing applications and online tax payments - and capturing how an abstract cybersecurity incident turns into everyday disruption. Taken together, these pieces present Westminster’s finances and systems as central political terrain, not background detail, with Foot spelling out sums, blocked services and the arguments between parties.
Oxford Street, transport and big urban schemes
Foot treats major urban projects as political stories as much as planning or transport stories.
In “Oxford Street ‘grandstanding’ must stop, says the opposition” he reports on the decision not to pursue a legal challenge against the mayor’s pedestrianisation plan, showing how an opposition promise turns into what critics call a “u-turn” once in power. The piece follows the dispute between Westminster’s new administration, the mayor and opposition councillors, and it makes clear that Oxford Street going traffic-free is now a fixed outcome that the council must work with rather than fight.
In “It’s ‘a gimmick’ – who needs a driverless cab?” he covers the planned trial of driverless taxis in Westminster, balancing the futuristic pitch with scepticism from those who question whether robo-taxis answer real transport needs. These stories link branding-heavy schemes - pedestrianisation, autonomous vehicles - to council decision-making, legal advice and public concerns, showing Foot’s habit of returning big-city ideas to the local politics that enable or constrain them.
Schools, playgrounds and everyday community life
Alongside formal politics, Foot reports on how policy and public investment show up in everyday community settings.
His “Teens overcome GCSE ‘challenges’” piece focuses on exam results at Westminster schools, highlighting how pupils and staff navigated recent disruptions while still meeting their goals. In “Now everyone can join in and play” he writes from the opening of the Alfred Road playground, emphasising inclusive design and the benefits of new play spaces for local children. Headlines such as “Act to stop falls” on the Westminster Extra homepage signal related attention to health, safety and prevention measures affecting residents.
These articles are shorter and more straightforward than his election and budget coverage, but they round out his beat by showing the outcomes of council decisions in classrooms, playgrounds and neighbourhoods rather than only in committee rooms.
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Abbi Garton-Crosbie
Abbi Garton-Crosbie is a multimedia political reporter who treats independence as a live process shaped by Holyrood power struggles, party manoeuvres and grassroots pressure. She works at The National, a pro-independence newspaper, covering how political power is contested and exercised in contemporary Scotland, with a core focus on parties, parliament and the mechanics of constitutional change. She reports on parliamentary votes, government strategy around future independence referendums, and elections across Scotland in the wider context of devolution in Wales and Northern Ireland. Her work centres on party leadership, resignations and internal conflict, including long-form interviews with senior politicians and coverage of emerging and smaller parties. She examines far-right activity, protest politics and movement organisation, and runs policy-driven reporting on rent caps, AI data centres, health boards and public services, across written, video and podcast formats.
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu
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Aisha Iqbal
Aisha Iqbal covers local and regional politics for the BBC, with a distinct focus on grassroots power and how local decisions shape trust, representation and public services. She reports on Bradford Council decisions, waste services, cultural funding, regeneration grants and the use of public money. She also covers grooming gangs, community safety, political trust, elections, Muslim voters, Gaza, ceasefire campaigns and the links between faith, foreign policy and representation. Her work includes culture and public figures when they intersect with civic identity, including a feature on David Hockney. She connects committee-room votes, neighbourhood disputes and national debates, showing who gains, who loses and how communities respond. She reports across broadcast and online platforms in a clear, explanatory style. Earlier, she covered politics, culture and consumer issues for regional newspapers.
Alessia Simona Maratta
Alessia Simona Maratta stands out for showing how political decisions, regulations and conflicts ripple through communities, pairing national and global stories with on-the-ground voices and clear policy explanations. She is a digital reporter, producer and editor with Global News’ network news desk, covering breaking news, crime, politics, public health, housing, labour, immigration, environment and climate, social issues and features. Her recent work spans politics, public health regulation, labour and technology, and human-interest features that ground complex issues in everyday experience. She reports on politics, policy and community impact, public health and social debates, and labour and regulation at the intersection of technology, globalization and worker rights. Alongside hard news, she produces features that use individual stories, straightforward narrative arcs and accessible explanations to connect history, science and policy to everyday life.