‘No mention of any of the causes of VAWG or policy solutions, just a Facebook group style moan in front of the cameras with cherry picked and manipulated statistics’
Reform UK’s conference on women’s safety as part of its six-week ‘Law and Order’ campaign has been called “a sham”.
Greater Lincolnshire Mayor Andrea Jenkyns, Runcorn and Helsby MP Sarah Pochin, Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham and leader of Kent county council Linden Kemkaren spoke at the conference this morning.
Kemkaren railed against trans women being allowed in women’s spaces and claimed “illegal migration is harming women and girls”.
Pochin claimed that the threat to women’s safety comes from “young military aged males” arriving on small boats.
She said: “We are talking about the daily influx of people who do not share our values, who do not share our culture, but are being welcomed into our country.”
In a post on X, former Labour advisor turned political commentator Matthew Torbitt wrote: “Reform’s press conference today was a sham masquerading as being bothered about violence against women and girls.
“No mention of any of the causes of VAWG or policy solutions, just a Facebook group style moan in front of the cameras with cherry picked and manipulated statistics.”
Speaking on GB News, Torbitt pointed out that there was “zero mention” of misogyny and sexism, domestic abuse or coercive control, and no policies to tackle the “pitiful” prosecution rates for rape cases.
Torbitt added that the nationality of a perpetrator is not relevant. He said: “I don’t reserve special dispensation of, ‘oh this is even more awful’ [because they’re foreign].”
“You ask anyone who has been raped, it is a horrific thing to go through. If you’ve ever looked after anybody who’s been through that, it doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
Reform UK Party Exposed pointed out that Farage’s own track record “doesn’t paint the best picture on supporting women”.
One of his former MPs, James McMurdock, was convicted of kicking his girlfriend on multiple occasions.
Farage’s advisor, George Cottrell, was arrested earlier this year along with his partner in connection with a domestic violence incident.
Back in 2014, he attacked the “lunacy” of maternity leave and bragged about how many women he had got pregnant.
In May, he said “utterly ludicrous” to allow abortion up to 24 weeks and indicated that he would want to impose stricter limits.
In March, he said men are prepared to sacrifice family life for a successful career in a way many women aren’t.
He also previously said women shouldn’t play football and women shouldn’t breastfeed publicly.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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