No-one who uses social media regularly or watches the news these days can fail to have noticed that, across the UK, the far right is resurgent. It has become increasingly bold, confident and unrestrained, and one of the most dangerous aspects of this activity is that it appears to believe it can win.
Earlier this year, something occurred which, potentially, elevates the danger from the far right even further. In April, a campaign group called the Women’s Safety Initiative (WSI) was established by Jess Gill. Its aim, according to the WSI’s website, is “to expose the dangers of uncontrolled immigration, put women and girls first, advocate for victims, and demand real solutions”.
Advocating for female victims of, largely male, violence against women is, of course, a laudable aim. However, it can be argued that, whether intentional or not, the stance taken by the WSI risks making immigrants appear especially prone to commit acts of violence against women in the UK.
The blame game
The tone of comments and posts on social media from the WSI group, following this line of argument, often implies a wider belief that multiculturalism in general is to blame for these violent acts against women.
We find comments made against established political and cultural figures, such as Birmingham born Zarah Sultana MP. For example, on 17 October, Gill accused Ms Sultana of hating Britain and called for her to be deported.
In reality, official statistics where ethnicity is included as a factor, show that most perpetrators, across all offences, are white. For example, Ministry of Justice figures show that “in 2022/23, white individuals accounted for 78% of arrests, 8% were of black individuals, 8% were of Asian individuals, 4% were of mixed ethnicity individuals and 2% were individuals of other ethnicities”.
The growing call to stop weaponising VAWG
However, the picture has been muddled, for example by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) think tank, led by Reform UK activist Robert Bates, who used a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Metropolitan Police to portray foreign nationals as being mostly responsible. In August, the New Statesman revealed that Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick made claims about migrant sex crime based on statistics that were inaccurate. These statistics had also been used by right-leaning media such as The Telegraph, and by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, among others.
This use of inaccurate data by those interested in blaming ethnic minorities and migrants for most acts of violence against women and girls subsequently led, on 28 August 2025, to the delivery of a letter to prime minister Keir Starmer and home secretary Yvette Cooper, signed by Rape Crisis England and Wales and 100 other organisations. The letter calls on the government to “stop the weaponisation of violence against women and girls by far-right groups and politicians to promote racist, anti-migrant agendas.” This call was also outlined in a powerful article by The Big Issue.
The letter argued that “vital conversations about violence against women and girls are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda that fuels division, harms survivors and ultimately impedes the real work of tackling the root causes of society-wide violence”. It added that “The racist idea that this is solely an imported problem flies in the face of women’s and girls’ daily experiences in the UK.”
The letter highlights the point made by most advocacy groups that VAWG is a universal issue rooted in misogyny, not ethnicity, and it presents the following data:
– Almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse, and sexual offences are at the highest level recorded.
– One woman every four days in the UK is murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
– More than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims.
– One in two rapes against women are carried out by a partner or ex-partner.
– One in three adult survivors of rape experiences it in their own home.
– Women who can’t access public funds, such as welfare support or housing assistance – due to No Recourse to Public Funds conditions – are three times more likely to experience VAWG.
– Two in five of those arrested over summer 2024’s anti-immigration riots had previously been reported to police for domestic abuse.
The picture is further complicated by the fact that ethnicity, as a factor in crimes in general, particularly when committed against women, is often poorly recorded by the media. This lack of data creates spaces that can be exploited by people with particular biases. The concern here is that organisations could be entering such spaces to use violence against women as a cover for anti-immigrant agendas.
Professionalisation and the spread of the movement
The WSI’s first meeting was held in Marylebone, London. It didn’t take long for the movement to spread, establishing branches across the country. By August 2025, it had generated enough interest to attract the attention of freelance journalist Michaela Makusha, who wrote an article about them in The Observer, mentioning the Rape Crisis England and Wales letter.
As Makusha’s article points out, the idea that immigrant males are responsible for most acts of violence and harassment against women is catching on across Europe. The WSI quickly spotted this and linked up with similar groups in France and Germany.
A typical stereotype of the far right is of often aggressive, angry groups, predominantly white and male, marching loudly through the streets of towns and cities across the UK. However, the entrance of bright, media-savvy, intelligent young women into this space is new and alarming, primarily because these women are often hugely influential. They know how to appear online and in front of the camera and they are careful to present themselves in a calm, articulate manner.
“They are extremely visible as influencers, activists, and politicians” wrote Dr Eviane Leidig, researcher and author in her book The Women of the Far Right. Leidig argues that “Women in the far right normalise and legitimise extreme views about gender and sexuality, racism, and xenophobia as a deliberate strategy to reach mainstream audiences.”
Weaponisation via social media
Elon Musk’s seizure of Twitter and its conversion into the far-right echo chamber X.com has greatly expanded the opportunities available to far right groups and movements across the world to advance their ideologies. The WSI, like other groups, swiftly embraced this medium. Gill now posts regularly on X, increasing her following on the platform by delivering messages that call for an increase in deportations in ways that echo far-right nativism.
In late September, the WSI established a branch in Bristol, advertising the organisation mainly through its Facebook page. Its South-West coordinator was, until fairly recently, a 24-year old young woman called Saskia Teague. Both Gill and Teague post messages from their personal accounts not only on X but also on Instagram and Tik Tok, two social media platforms that, it can be argued, are even more effective than X for delivering highly polished and attractive media messages for propaganda purposes.
Remigration features prominently in Teague’s feed on X, sometimes backed up by video-based explanations, and the term ‘remigration’ is displayed prominently on her X profile.
Calls for remigration can be viewed as advocating for a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ since they aim to establish a nativist and ethnocentric society in Britain with non-white people either encouraged to leave or forcibly deported.
Other key contributors are, for example, Anna McGovern, identified in the WSI’s Instagram page as its main spokeswoman. McGovern is an experienced and active journalist with media groups such as The Telegraph, GB News, Sky News and Talk TV. In her capacity as a journalist, she is able to deliver WSI-supportive views and opinions openly whilst lending the WSI a measure of professional legitimacy.
Danger ahead
The WSI then is an important new ‘far-right adjacent’ movement – i.e. connected to or influenced by far-right ideologies, such as extreme nationalism and anti-immigration – entering the scene.
It is hugely influential already, with “regional chapters all across the country” according to its website, and growing quickly. The women who become attracted to these groups are rightly concerned about the threat of violence against women by men. But, in the process of adopting a very real and legitimate concern, they are at risk of being misled and redirected towards far-right discourse.
This is something about which we should all be worried. The WSI’s approach is clever, intelligent, polished and charismatic. And that is exactly what makes it so dangerous.
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