Reform UK event (l to r) Laila Cunningham, Andrea Jenkyns, Sarah Pochin and Linden Kemkaran (Image: Getty)
Women across the UK are “at risk of sexual assault and rape” because of small-boat migrants arriving from “predominantly Muslim countries”, Reform MP Sarah Pochin has claimed. She joined fellow female Reform politicians to warn the UK faces an “invasion” of men who pose a threat to women and girls.
The outspoken comments, at a press conference in the party’s London headquarters, draw a clear dividing line with the other major parties, which have avoided making a connection between violence against women and the nationality or religion of offenders. Linden Kemkaran, the Reform leader of Kent County Council, described trans-women as “biological men pretending to be women” in another break with the Westminster consensus, and insisted they should not be allowed in female single-sex spaces.
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Party leader Nigel Farage was not present at the event, but endorsed it as he claimed Labour and the Conservatives “completely failed to keep women and girls safe”.
Mr Farage said: “This is the next big issue in British politics.”
The party set out to place the spotlight on its most senior women as it drew a direct link between immigration and crime. Ms Pochin, who won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election for Reform in May, 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 at vast expense to us, the taxpayer.”
She highlighted figures published in January which showed foreigners are 3.5 times as likely to be arrested for sex offences as British suspects, when population numbers are taken into account.
Ms Pochin said: “The inconvenient truth for the left is that the culture of men from predominantly Muslim countries like Afghanistan is one that holds a medieval view of women’s rights.
“It is fundamentally alien to the centuries of progress made by our own western culture and attitudes.
“Women are at risk of sexual assault and rape from these men, hundreds of young men who arrive in this country, housed in our communities, who undoubtedly become sexually frustrated, have a warped view of their right to sexually assault women.”
It was “no wonder” mothers are protesting outside hotels housing asylum seekers, Ms Pochin said. “Mothers who are afraid for the safety of their daughters. and why wouldn’t they be when we hear that these illegal migrants are loitering around schools, around parks, men with deplorable attitudes towards women.”
More than 25,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel so far in 2025, Home Office figures show.
Laila Cunningham, a former Conservative on Westminster council who defected to Reform, said: “For everyone fighting to protect their family only to be told to ‘calm down and shut up’ while the government places foreign rapists in their doorsteps, you are not alone. We see you, we hear you and reform is coming to fight for you.”
Ms Cunningham, a former Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, said police failed to act when muggers targeted her children, leading her to try to track the culprits down herself.
She accused the Government of using child safety as an excuse to introduce the Online Safety Bill, which makes it harder to access some material which is legal but considered harmful.
Similar concerns were raised by Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the Reform mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, who said: “Thought police are monitoring our every social media post but letting off paedophiles.”
Dame Andrea said: “I don’t feel safe. And as a mother I no longer feel that our children live in the safe, beautiful haven of Britain that I grew up in.”
Ms Kemkaran said the UK faced a “national emergency”. She said: “The invasion, and I use the word invasion, because that is exactly what it is, of hundreds of thousands of undocumented men who come from countries where violence is the norm and women are not even second class citizens, is placing women and girls in grave danger.”
Reform is attempting to build support among female voters, who have traditionally been less likely to back it. At the last election, an estimated 17% of men and 12% of women voted for Reform.
Polling by YouGov shows 29% of men and 25% of women say they would vote Reform if an election was held tomorrow. In total, this poll showed Reform has the support of 27% of voters, more than any other party with Labour in second place on 21%.
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Nigel Farage erupts as 211 people in migrant hotels charged with 425 crimes
Boost for Nigel Farage as women back Reform over migration and cost of living fears
This is why Reform are about to send shockwaves through the political landscape
Starmer: police to be ‘transparent as possible' over ethnicity of sex offence suspects
Enough is enough - Yvette Cooper has proved she doesn't have a clue
Nigel Farage announces another defection to Reform in latest Tory blow
Kemi Badenoch has a new reason to lose sleep over Reform UK
Lee Anderson savages 'refugees welcome crowd' as he claims 'we're importing rapists'
Pathetic police excuse over alleged rapists' ethnicity cover-up already falling apart
Riot police brace for more protests as nationwide day of anger sparks arrests
Jess Phillips wades into Nigel Farage row with fresh Jimmy Savile swipe
Reform and Labour at war over nation's water crisis
Reform civil war erupts as Nigel Farage suffers 'Nicola Sturgeon moment'
Nigel Farage issues 8-word statement after Reform trans row erupts
Politics LIVE: Britain no longer 'safe haven' for women and girls
Only Reform is willing to say things about immigration that Labour and the Tories won't
More than 50,000 migrants have crossed under Labour - 'scandalous!'
Welsh First Minister refused to read rape gang briefing with more than six bullet points
GB News panel in explosive Reform clash as guest rages 'What a mess!'
I'm a Reform councillor at 18 - friends won't talk to me but it's worth it
Nigel Farage erupts as 211 people in migrant hotels charged with 425 crimes
Boost for Nigel Farage as women back Reform over migration and cost of living fears
This is why Reform are about to send shockwaves through the political landscape
Starmer: police to be ‘transparent as possible' over ethnicity of sex offence suspects
Enough is enough - Yvette Cooper has proved she doesn't have a clue
Nigel Farage announces another defection to Reform in latest Tory blow
Kemi Badenoch has a new reason to lose sleep over Reform UK
Lee Anderson savages 'refugees welcome crowd' as he claims 'we're importing rapists'
Pathetic police excuse over alleged rapists' ethnicity cover-up already falling apart
Riot police brace for more protests as nationwide day of anger sparks arrests
Jess Phillips wades into Nigel Farage row with fresh Jimmy Savile swipe
Reform and Labour at war over nation's water crisis
Reform civil war erupts as Nigel Farage suffers 'Nicola Sturgeon moment'
Nigel Farage issues 8-word statement after Reform trans row erupts
Politics LIVE: Britain no longer 'safe haven' for women and girls
Only Reform is willing to say things about immigration that Labour and the Tories won't
More than 50,000 migrants have crossed under Labour - 'scandalous!'
Welsh First Minister refused to read rape gang briefing with more than six bullet points
GB News panel in explosive Reform clash as guest rages 'What a mess!'
I'm a Reform councillor at 18 - friends won't talk to me but it's worth it
Nigel Farage erupts as 211 people in migrant hotels charged with 425 crimes
Boost for Nigel Farage as women back Reform over migration and cost of living fears
This is why Reform are about to send shockwaves through the political landscape
Starmer: police to be ‘transparent as possible' over ethnicity of sex offence suspects
Enough is enough - Yvette Cooper has proved she doesn't have a clue
Nigel Farage announces another defection to Reform in latest Tory blow
Kemi Badenoch has a new reason to lose sleep over Reform UK
By contrast, the Conservative Party is traditionally more popular with women than men, and 19% of women plan to vote Tory compared to 15% of men, the YouGov survey found.
Labour pointed out that Reform’s MPs had voted against the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which it said would fight violence against women and girls.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “If Farage’s party wanted to be taken seriously when it comes to tackling the scourge of violence against women and girls, they wouldn’t have tried to block Labour’s new laws to crack down on perpetrators of such vile criminality and get justice for victims.”
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