Want to protect women and girls? Stay away from Reform

Nigel Farage’s much-hyped Reform speech would apparently have something new to say in terms of policy. As such, it was covered extensively by the media, with the two major parties seemingly on extended summer breaks.

But what was new? Maybe it was the more professional look? Although, the air hanger backdrop did make him sound as if he was in a literal echo chamber.

But apart from that, he tapped into the current anti-migrant sentiment around hotels and spoke of the need for mass deportations, something that would necessitate the leaving of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). As the Canary previously reported, he announced the racist Operation Restoring Justice. Hardly new for Farage, then.

Farage’s speech: his rancid racism has nothing to do with VAWG

At one point he asked if society was interested in the safety of women and girls or the Human Rights legislation If we follow this ‘logic’, he is saying that it’s migrants who are responsible for violence against women and girls – a racist trope that’s highly offensive.

And, equally alarming was the lack of pushback from mainstream media, opting instead for prime time radio and television coverage.

Head of public affairs at the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) Janaya Walker said:

We’re alarmed by ongoing rhetoric exploiting concerns about violence against women to further a racist, anti-migrant narrative. This not only harms migrants and racially minoritised communities but hinders work to address male violence and abuse, which is most commonly carried out by someone known to the victim.

Every act of violence against women and girls is an injustice, but the racist idea that this is primarily an imported problem flies in the face of women and girls’ daily experiences in the UK. We’re incredibly concerned that this narrative is being endorsed by mainstream politicians from various political parties.

With Labour’s remarks on an ‘island of strangers’, the Conservatives expensive Rwanda gimmick, and Reform’s proposal ofmass deportations, it does seem like these parties are trying to outdo each other in terms of how hostile, vindictive, and anti-migrant they can appear to voters.

As such, it can feel like we’re being dragged, as a country, to the right. That feels troubling, especially as we look to the future.

Leaving the ECHR: endangering women and girls

If Reform was ever to win a general election, one of its first acts would be to make the UK into a pariah state by taking us out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Civil liberties consultant solicitor Chris Topping said:

The European Convention on Human Rights (“EHCR”) is 75 years old this year.

In that time, it has become the cornerstone of the way in which our society has moved in a progressive way to bring equity and equality to those who would otherwise be the victims of discrimination and abuse.

When the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) became law we began to see a greater prospect of justice moving from the illusory to reality, particularly for women.

Take for example the victims of John Worboys (‘the Black Cab rapist’). They were empowered by the work of the Centre for Women’s Justice to bring litigation arguing that their rights under Article 3 of the EHCR had been violated by the egregious failures of the Metropolitan Police investigation. The changes that followed the landmark rulings in the Supreme Court have been for the benefit of everyone, women in particular.

The suggestion that we could repeal the HRA or leave the EHCR is astonishing in its lack of understanding of just how important they are to the lives of women in the UK in 2025.

Walker from EVAW reiterated these concerns:

We are also alarmed by the threats to roll back on our collective human rights with debates about withdrawing from the ECHR and withdrawing the Human Rights Act. Survivors and the organisations that support them have long relied on the human rights act to hold the state and its institutions to account when they fail us – whether that’s the police or local authorities.

Women and girls deserve better than this dangerous narrative which scapegoats communities and threatens to roll back the human rights protections we have fought for.

Stay far away from Reform

Farage and Reform’s disgusting new announcement began to fall apart within 24 hours. Confusion reigned over whether children would be part of these mass deportations. And, that’s to say nothing of the widespread accusations that the party is “ripping up” human rights laws.

Leaving the ECHR will undoubtedly put the most vulnerable in our society, including women and girls, at risk. In particular, women and girls who have suffered sexual exploitation, violence, or who’ve been trafficked and let down by services such as the police.

Human Rights and women’s rights are intertwined. Anyone who wants to protect women and girls needs to stay far away from Reform.

Featured image via the Canary