Farage has 1.2 million followers on TikTok. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch aren’t even on it.
“We look at Labour and Conservatives, and in my opinion, their values are quite similar now,” argued Hill. “You can’t ring fence either party’s values, whereas with Reform, I think you can.”
Hill also believes Reform is offering direct policy support for young women. Pointing to Farage’s recent announcement that he wants to scrap a two-child cap on social security benefits, and bring in tax breaks for married people, Hill said Reform would enable women “to stay at home for longer or to go part-time.”
Safety — and scrapping DEI
O’Geran notes that Gen Z women diverge from the rest of the population on key issues. Only five percent of those polled named immigration as a top concern — compared to 22 percent among the wider public. Instead, the issues that matter the most to this cohort are the cost of living, jobs, mental health and affordable housing.
Still, some of Reform’s female politicians want to link immigration to women’s safety. “Once those illegal immigrants are in the community, that’s when women’s safety becomes a real issue,” Sarah Pochin, a new Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, said. “That’s when women feel that they can’t let their children play out on the streets.”
Sarah Pochin (L), Andrea Jenkyns (Centre), Charlotte Hill (R) | Photo-illustration by Aimee Rogers/POLITICO (Source Images from WikiCommons and Reform UK)
Andrea Jenkyns, newly elected Lincolnshire mayor, similarly told POLITICO that “especially in coastal areas, young women were saying … that they feared for their safety, because especially on the coast there’s migrant hotels. I think if we’ve got this strong policy on illegal migration and safety, I think that would appeal to people.”