Nigel Farage: Tough on crime, soft on facts
Plus: The latest from Reform Watch, long-reads galore in The Lead Digest, and a slice of the news in the North.
Nigel Farage has worn many hats: Thatcherite banker, Brexit crusader, pub-going populist. This week, he’s trying on a new one: the saviour of good, old-fashioned British justice.
On Monday, Reform UK launched the first stage of its six-week policy blitz, and Farage picked law and order as his opening act.
At a press conference, he declared “crime has become commonplace across Britain”, and accused ministers of prioritising “everything except keeping the people of this country safe.” He pledged his party would spend £17bn on policies to halve crime in the UK, construct five Nightingale prisons, and deport more than 10,000 foreign criminals. It’s a compelling performance, but Farage’s history, and the figures around him, tell a different story.
Farage blamed immigration for the rise in sexual assaults, stating: “There is an alarming parallel between the extraordinary increase in the number of reported rapes and the wholly irresponsible immigration and asylum policies pursued by first Labour and then Conservative governments.”
It’s not the first time we’ve heard this argument. Farage’s allies routinely claim foreign nationals account for 25 per cent of sexual offences in the UK, a statistic that has been widely challenged by experts for its selective interpretation and lack of context.
But even if that figure were accurate, the implication is chilling. What about the other 75 per cent of perpetrators? Are their crimes somehow more acceptable because they are British? Or, perhaps, white? The common denominator here isn’t nationality, it’s that the vast majority of perpetrators are men.
We saw this logic again in Farage’s response to protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping, where a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He warned of “civil disobedience on a vast scale”, adding: “do I understand how people in Epping feel? You bet your life I do.” One wonders if he had similar empathies when Kyle Clifford raped and murdered Louise Hunt and killed her sister and mother, or when serving Met officer Wayne Couzens abducted and murdered Sarah Everard?
However you slice it, there’s racialised logic at play: the idea that sexual violence is only a national emergency when committed by outsiders. It’s misogyny with a side of white nationalism, and voters, especially women, would be wise to see straight through it.
To be clear, violent crime, including sexual offences, is of real concern. But Farage’s framing wilfully ignores long-term trends. According to the ONS, overall crime has fallen significantly since the mid-1990s. Offences like theft, criminal damage and non-fatal violence are down. Yes, sexual offences have risen in recent years, but the picture is far more complex than Farage’s Daily Mail dispatches suggest.
And yet, while promising to get tough on crime, Farage is also railing against the government’s Online Safety Act, dubbing it “borderline dystopian” and vowing to repeal it. Last year, The Guardian reported a worrying rise in sexual assaults committed by children against other children, often fuelled by exposure to violent online content. The NSPCC reports that over 9,000 child sexual abuse offences involved an online element in 2022/23. Farage wants to scrap protections against that, even while talking tough about child abuse.
Meanwhile, Reform might want to take a closer look at its own ranks. Of the five MPs Reform returned from the general election, one – Rupert Lowe – was investigated for alleged violent behaviour before being booted out of the party (he denies wrongdoing and was not charged). Another, James McMurdock, has a conviction for a violent assault against his former girlfriend. He just so happens to no longer be in the party too, but that’s for a separate issue: he is alleged to have borrowed tens of thousands of pounds in COVID loans. That’s a 20 per cent rate of MPs with violent offences against women, and 40 per cent kicked out of the party for alleged misconduct… hardly the record of a party cracking down on thugs.
Then there’s Farage himself. This is the man who backed Donald Trump, who was found civilly liable for sexual abuse in a US court. The man who’s flirted with language that edges close to incitement, praised Andrew Tate as an “important voice” for young men, and thrives on grievance, not lawfulness. And let’s not forget: before his reinvention as the saviour of the working class, Farage was a City trader. If you’re looking for a profession with a high tolerance for moral flexibility, look no further.
All this to say that talk is not just cheap, it’s dangerous, when it comes to Reform UK.
If you want to know how the party truly regards law, justice and order, look past Mr Farage’s platitudes to the actions of his party, and the history of the man himself.■
About the author: Zoë Grünewald is Westminster Editor at The Lead and a freelance political journalist and broadcaster. Zoë then worked as a policy and politics reporter at the New Statesman, before joining the Independent as a political correspondent. When not writing about politics and policy, she is a regular commentator on TV and radio and a panellist on the Oh God What Now podcast.
The Lead is keeping an eye on Reform UK and their fellow travellers. Get in touch on X, Bluesky and Instagram or email ella@thelead.uk with tips and stories. We especially want to hear from readers whose local council is now run by Farage’s followers.
Adam Holloway is the latest Conservative to defect to Reform after he lost his seat in Kent last year. Writing for the Spectator, Holloway said his values no longer align with his old party’s, which wants “course correction” while Reform believes “only bold change”. In a previous life as an undercover journalist, Holloway made the series “Disguises” in which he would pose as a vulnerable person. One episode saw him posing as a Bosnian refugee seeking asylum, a heartstring-tugging affair designed to prick the conscience of the UK and Europe. His journey to Reform candidate marks quite the shift in stance. As a politician, he supported two convicted sex offenders – his ex-colleagues, Charlie Elphicke and Imran Khan – and even breached the code of conduct over an attempt to influence the legal proceedings which found them guilty.
During his time as a Tory MP, Mr Holloway was a vocal backer of his ex-colleagues Charlie Elphicke and Imran Khan, both of whom were convicted of sexual offences.
A Reform UK councillor for Ferryhill, Tony Hewitt, has resigned so his wife can enter their town’s annual flower show. He said his wife’s happiness is more important than political ambitions. We can get behind that.
James Orr, who is behind the new pro-Reform think tank the Centre for a Better Britain, has said that, if Reform were to come to power, it would have to do some “very unpopular” things in its first 100 days to fix the economy. He said the party doesn’t have a magic wand and that they need to make sure “they've got policy behind them that is properly costed, properly worked out, coordinated across a broad platform.” Indeed. A generous cost analysis of Reform’s 2024 manifesto by the Economist in May estimated the annual costs would be in the region of £200bn and savings around £100bn.
Finally, Reform UK leaders in Lincolnshire say they have “declared war” on green energy projects. Plans for the region include nationally significant infrastructure projects such as large-scale solar farms and a corridor of pylons between Grimsby and Walpole. Richard Tice, MP for Boston and Skegness MP said their LORE campaign [Lincolnshire Opposes Renewable Eyesores] would use “every lever available” to stop these developments.
The Lead Digest
Padraig recommends this week’s episode of the Little Atom’s podcast in which host Neil Denny talks to author Nick Jay about his reissued book Free Radicals, a fascinating look at the 18th Century Enlightenment origin of nitrous oxide and psychedelia.
He also enjoyed Daniel Trilling’s long read on Keir Starmer’s apparent (and surprising) lack of commitment to defending human rights.
Ella enjoyed this article on the real winners of the Online Safety Act (spoiler: Big Tech giants) by Ella Dorn in the New Statesmen. We’ll be untangling all the talk about the Online Safety Act in tomorrow’s edition of The Lead Untangles. Sign up now to get it directly in your inbox.
Another long read this week – lucky you! – Natalie recommends Abi Stephenson’s article on the history of extreme pregnancy sickness, and how medicalised misogyny has always left women to suffer.
We also thought our readers might enjoy this story about campaigners in Devon fighting for their right to the riverbank after research by locals found the River Dart has 108 separate owners, with an eighth of it owned via offshore companies.
At The Lead we’re dedicated to telling stories beyond the bright lights of London and Manchester (although sometimes we still will). We have dedicated journalists and titles in Blackpool, Lancashire, Calderdale, Teesside and Southport bringing in-depth news and features twice-a-week to those communities…
Lancashire is at the centre of a crisis threatening the safety of prisoners as the pressure on the North West's overcrowded jails continues to increase.
In Teesside, a story that has been covered by multiple outlets this week, but was first seen in The Teesside Lead two weeks ago. Teesworks and South Tees Development Corporation have objected to BP’s H2Teesside blue hydrogen project. Teesworks doesn’t want to play its part in the “energy revolution”, and is instead throwing all of its eggs into the data centre basket. Read more on this story here.
In Calderdale, Calder Valley MP Josh Fenton-Glyn has signed a cross-party letter urging the Prime Minister to recognise a Palestinian state.
The letter has been signed by more than 200 MPs and was organised by the Labourbackbencher Sarah Champion, who sits as the International Development Committee chair.
Zoë briefly mentioned the Online Safety Act in her article above, and we will be sticking with this tomorrow in The Lead Untangles. Our reporter Ella Glover will be taking a fine-tooth comb to the proposed legislation, untangling what it actually means and what’s behind the calls to have the act repealed.
If you’re reading this and you’re not signed up, consider subscribing to The Lead below so you don’t miss our upcoming editions. Thanks for reading our Thursday newsletter, it’s great to have you with us.
Ed, Zoë, Ella, Luke, Natalie, Padraig, and The Lead team.
Spot on, sadly a significant number of people cannot and will not see how they are being played and exploited by this feckless grifter.
Mainstream MurdochMedia give this creepy, dubious character far too much credence. He's a hypocritical menace.