What Reform UK’s senior figures actually take into consideration girls and households | EUROtoday

Reform UK has a chequered historical past in relation to girls and households, with among the occasion’s extra outstanding figures having confronted criticism for his or her views.

Matt Goodwin, the occasion’s candidate within the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election, has beforehand referred to as for younger women to be given a “biological reality” examine, in addition to suggesting individuals who don’t have youngsters ought to be taxed additional as punishment, whereas the occasion’s new head of coverage, Dr James Orr, has beforehand argued that marriage is finest for youngsters when it’s between a person and a girl.

Nigel Farage himself has additionally confronted criticism for his feedback about girls, final yr suggesting that males are ready to sacrifice household lives for profitable careers in a method many ladies aren’t.

As the occasion surges within the polls and makes an attempt to get its high group able to battle an election, The Independent has taken a take a look at precisely what key figures within the occasion have stated about marriage, girls, abortion and fertility – and what it’d imply for coverage.

Marriage

In 2025, Mr Farage was accused of “vile homophobia” for claiming straight {couples} are extra steady than homosexual relationships throughout a press convention welcoming former Conservative MP Danny Kruger to Reform UK.

Mr Farage, who has twice been married and is now in a relationship, stated “the most stable relationships tend to be between men and women” after he was requested about previous feedback made by the right-winger, who grew to become the primary sitting Tory MP to affix Mr Farage’s occasion.

Mr Kruger, who defected to Reform from the Tories final yr, beforehand instructed a National Conservatism convention that marriage between women and men was “the only basis for a safe and successful society”.

This is a view that has been echoed by the occasion’s new head of coverage.

Speaking to the Family Education’s Trust’s 2025 Annual Conference, Dr Orr stated: “All the data shows that the children are better off, are best off with a mum and a dad, preferably in the house, preferably biologically related to them. It’s a difficult piece of data to put forward in our permissive age, but it’s true.”

Describing households that are made up of a heterosexual couple with youngsters as “natural”, he added: “There needs to be some kind of normative ideal, there needs to be some benchmark that we can at least aspire to… that the state, to some extent, can help families aspire to.”

Abortion

Nigel Farage has beforehand taken goal at UK abortion legal guidelines, saying they’re “totally out of date”, arguing it’s “ludicrous we allow abortion up to 24 weeks”.

Mr Kruger, the Reform MP for East Wiltshire, in a debate on abortion as soon as disagreed that pregnant girls had an “absolute right to bodily autonomy”, sparking protests in his constituency.

He later clarified that he does “not wish to dictate what a woman should do with her own body, as has been claimed”, including that his place on abortion “reflects the status quo” and that he supported the 1967 Abortion Act.

It got here as MPs voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales, reforms which have been designed to guard girls whereas sustaining penalties for medical professionals and abusive companions who terminate a being pregnant exterior the present authorized framework.

A Reform spokesperson final yr stated the occasion doesn’t have a stance on abortion and has no intention of constructing adjustments to the present abortion legal guidelines.

However, the occasion’s new head of coverage has described Britain’s abortion legal guidelines as “extreme”.

“Two or three days ago, I think, there was an interview on Times Radio with a medic arguing that – even though Britain has one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world, 24 weeks, we’re up there with North Korea, China and, God help us, Canada – this wasn’t extreme enough, that we should be pushing for 37 weeks, 38 weeks,” Dr Orr instructed Family Education Trust’s 2025 annual convention.

Fertility and delivery charges

Earlier this month, The Independent revealed that Reform UK’s candidate in an upcoming by-election, Matt Goodwin, beforehand referred to as for girls and younger women to be given a “biological reality” examine, as he gave his views on how Britain ought to deal with its impending “fertility crisis”.

Days earlier, it was revealed that Dr Goodwin beforehand advised individuals who don’t have youngsters ought to be taxed additional as punishment. The unearthed clip posted to his private YouTube channel in November 2024 confirmed the previous tutorial warning that “many women in Britain are having children much too late in life”.

While Nigel Farage later poured chilly water on the proposal to tax individuals with out youngsters, saying the occasion has no plans to hike taxes, he stated those that have “quite a few children” may very well be given tax breaks to assist with the price of residing if his occasion got here to energy.

Dr Orr has additionally advocated for pro-natalist public coverage, saying that the “gap between desired fertility and actual fertility was getting wider and wider in most parts of the West”.

While he stated that is “not about coercing women into making choices that they don’t want to have”, he added that it’s “perfectly legitimate for social conservatives, for all of us, to ask why and what can be done” to make it simpler to “bring new life into the world”.

But despite these feedback concerning the declining delivery fee, Reform UK earlier this yr U-turned on a promise to carry the two-child profit cap, which penalises households which have greater than two youngsters.

Mr Farage vowed to axe the cap in May final yr, saying it was the “right thing to do”, earlier than later clarifying it ought to be lifted just for British households in work.

But Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s new Treasury spokesman, stated on Wednesday that the coverage “has to go”, calling for the cap to be saved, as Mr Farage admitted his “attempt at being pro-family has failed”.

Women within the office

The most concrete coverage Reform has unveiled referring to girls and households to date is their plan to scrap the Equality Act, introduced by Suella Braverman, Reform’s new training and equalities spokesperson.

But the announcement has sparked issues that it may negatively affect girls, given its position in defending maternity go away and discrimination in opposition to moms and pregnant girls.

In the wake of the announcement, the Good Law Project accused Reform UK of “pitching for the votes of misogynists, homophobes, racists and antisemites, who are the only people who benefit from removing discrimination protections”.

And in 2025, Mr Farage risked triggering a row over sexism after he instructed a Westminster lunch that extra males “are prepared to sacrifice their family lives in order to pursue a career and be successful in a way that fewer women are.”

“And those women that do have probably got more chance of reaching the top than the blokes,” he added.