On the 1st October 2025, a crowd of pink Union Jacks could be seen rallying near Downing Street in London. Protestors calling themselves the “Pink Ladies” came together in Westminster to demonstrate against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers and voiced a general anti-immigration sentiment.
In recent years, British right-wing nationalism has been building, with xenophobic rhetoric spouted by politicians escalating into a full-blown Tommy Robinson march of 110,000 people in London in September. Growing up in Kent, where Nigel Farage stood for election as an MP in 2015 and where, in May of this year, Reform took a majority of the County Council, I have certainly borne witness to a significant amount of this anti-immigrant rhetoric. Due to my own political leanings, I have found much of this hard to stomach, and I have found it a huge challenge to negotiate the love I have for the place I grew up with the increasing levels of xenophobia and full-blown hate.
A part of this growing nationalism which I have been both troubled and fascinated by is the involvement of women, specifically. Historically, there have always been groups of women who have supported right-wing movements. Andrea Dworkin famously examined this phenomenon in her 1983 book, Right-Wing Women. In 1908, the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League was established by women to oppose women being granted the vote. Ironically, the Pink Ladies have compared themselves to the suffragettes. The Pink Ladies have been quick to dispute the description of them as a far-right group, describing themselves as “not far-right, just on the right side of history,” despite links to Reform UK and Tommy Robinson, one of the UK’s most well-known far-right influencers.
The primary concern of the Pink Ladies is supposedly increasing levels of violence against women and girls, caused by high levels of “illegal migration” – a term I personally would dispute the use of anyway; under international law, there is no such things as an “illegal” person seeking migration, as under the 1951 Refugee Convention, anyone has the right to apply for asylum and to remain there until authorities assess their claim. On the Pink Ladies’ website, they refer to themselves as “grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and daughters who are deeply concerned about the future of our country, especially in light of mass immigration and, in particular, illegal immigration.” They argue that their opposition to migration is in the interest of protecting women. Violence against women and girls is a cause I myself am particularly passionate about; I fundraise each year for my local rape crisis centre in Canterbury. To see this issue co-opted by the far-right as a way to scapegoat marginalised communities concerns me greatly. The Pink Ladies are using the valid fears surrounding women’s safety to further anti-immigrant ideology.
The argument that increasing immigration leads to higher levels of violence against women has been disproven by multiple organisations. The Women’s Safety Initiative, who are partnered with the Pink Ladies, claim in a post on Instagram that “Foreign citizens are 3.5x more likely to be arrested for sex crimes than British citizens, according to the Centre for Migration Control.” This statistic, as given by Sarah Zad in her article for Sludge Magazine, actually comes from a blog founded by a Reform activist rather than a legitimate think tank. Zad explains that this statistic is manipulated by the WSI, as it “prioritises assumption over fact.” This cherry-picking of statistics to uphold arguments against migration is becoming increasingly common in nationalist and right-wing discourse.
The unsettling irony in the Pink Ladies’ argument is that statistics show, in most cases, the threat of sexual violence is absolutely not a consequence of migration. 6 in 7 rapes against women are carried out by someone they know, and the majority of violence against women that occurs is intimate partner violence. During the anti-migrant riots that took place in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport, 2 out of every 5 people arrested had previously been reported to the police for domestic abuse. By misdirecting public attention towards migrant communities rather than the intimate partners and abusers who statistically pose a real threat, genuine efforts to protect women are sabotaged. Time spent scapegoating asylum seekers could instead be spent raising funds for rape crisis centres and examining the institutional ways that perpetrators continue to get away with committing acts of violence against women.
Whatever the Pink Ladies say, there is no liberation in a movement that exploits legitimate concerns surrounding women’s safety to fuel hatred towards marginalised communities. As we culturally negotiate how we can fight back against rising nationalism and xenophobia, we must also consider how we can continue to fight violence against women and girls without allowing the narrative to be co-opted.