Does Nigel Farage have a problem with women?

Critics say Reform leader’s patronising rhetoric is part of worrying trend. He says scrutiny is a two way street.

When Nigel Farage told a journalist this week she should “write some silly story … and we won’t bother to read it”, it provoked an instant – and divided – reaction. For some it was a “masterclass” in dealing with mainstream media, but for others it was “rude, dismissive, misogynistic, arrogant”.

Behind the scenes, Farage’s treatment of the Financial Times’s Anna Gross – which was met with mirth and applause among Reform diehards in the room – provoked disquiet and anger among lobby journalists across the political spectrum.

As the Reform UK leader was leaving the event, a Guardian political reporter suggested he had been rude and had upset the journalist. “Good,” Farage responded.

It is not the first time Farage has been accused of patronising a female journalist. When the former BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain asked him about the potential consequences of shooting down Russian planes last October, Farage responded: “Listen love, you’re trying ever so hard.” A month later he accused the Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey of playing a “silly little game” when she asked who his chancellor would be.

Amid a busy news cycle, his most recent condescension could have been easily forgotten. But in a week where Farage hired a hardline anti-abortion theologian as his head of policy and promised to repeal the Equality Act on his party’s first day in government, it has sparked the question: does Reform UK, and its leader in particular, have a women problem?

Jane Martinson, the former chair of Women in Journalism, said the run-ins with female journalists were a clear example of Donald Trump’s influence.

“Nigel Farage is really offering a sort of Trump-lite for the British people, patronising a respected journalist and newspaper because he disagrees with its scrutiny,” she said. “This is all about ignoring the public’s right to know and trying to control your own message by turning on the messenger, especially if they’re just ‘silly’ women.”

Reproductive rights and equality campaigners reacted in horror after Farage hired James Orr, a rightwing theologian who opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest or serious risk to health, to replace Zia Yusuf as his head of policy. The Cambridge University professor, who heads the Centre for a Better Britain thinktank, is an influential figure in Trump’s administration and is admired by the vice-president, JD Vance, who once described him as his “British sherpa”.

Kerry Abel, the chair of Abortion Rights, said it was “an alarming moment for Britain” and accused Farage of “borrowing tactics from America’s culture wars”, especially in relation to anti-abortion ideology.

The hire came a little over a week after Matt Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, was accused of wanting a “Handmaid’s Tale future” after unearthed YouTube footage revealed he had called for “young girls and women” to be given a “biological reality” check.

For Heejung Chung, the director of the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Farage’s rhetoric around – and treatment of – women is part of a worrying trend that delegitimises discussion of gender inequality and women’s rights in a way that was “unthinkable” even five years ago.

“It feels like a consistent and deliberate tactic,” she said. “I don’t think it’s that he’s an old-fashioned guy with questionable views, he wants to distract people into thinking their problems are because of women, or equality and diversity policies, or immigrants. Like Trump in America, it shifts the discourse, and that is very dangerous.”

There are signs that Labour, and others on the left, are willing to meet Farage on this battlefield. On Thursday, Keir Starmer said plans to repeal the Equality Act, which gives women extra protection in the workplace, were “shocking” and unBritish, arguing that Reform wanted to send women back to the “old days”.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, described the attack on the 2010 legislation as “calculating, playbook, rage-bait politics” and bad economic policy. “The Equality Act gives the labour market more talent, which is good for productivity and good for growth,” she said. “What this is about is saying: ‘Here’s somebody to blame for why the world isn’t fair.’ It is not saying: ‘How do we fix it?’”

Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, called for a united front against the “nasty thread of misogyny” running through Reform UK. Farage was also a political risk, he said, noting that “Reform have already got a problem with women voters”.

While it is true that Reform voters have skewed heavily male, there has been a shift. In the last election, 61% of voters who voted Reform UK were men, but on voting intention in 2026 that figure had dropped to 55%, according to polling from More In Common.

Luke Tryl, More in Common’s executive director, said there was a “Reform seesaw” among women who expressed support for the party, with those in focus groups voicing concerns about the risk of backing Farage, while also showing interest in the radical change they thought his party could bring.

Farage should be wary of comparisons to the US president, with polling showing that 25% of women considered Farage’s support for Trump as the top reason not to vote Reform, compared with 21% of men.

Farage may also want to consider how he treats journalists at future press conferences. “Rudeness is a sort of thing that people do notice,” Tryl said. “It’s a sort of thing which, if it becomes a pattern, could go down badly. If you think about that seesaw, it’s all weighing down the side which says ‘this is too much of a risk’.”

Asked for comment, a Reform UK spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage treats all journalists equally. Scrutiny is a two-way street.”