Nigel Farage’s EU election leaflet, dropping on doormats across the country, claims a vote for his Brexit Party is “about more than Brexit, it’s about what kind of country we are”. But we’ve no idea what the party stands for beyond a call for the hardest Brexit possible – there’s no manifesto and no policies. For now, all we have is a list of candidates. What do they stand for?
Upon closer examination, the Brexit Party seems to be providing a good hiding place for more insidious political beliefs, particularly when it comes to the rights and equal treatment of women and minority groups. That’s why pro-Europeans must turn out in force to counter Farage’s efforts with votes for pro-EU, pro-equality parties.
Nigel Farage (top candidate, South East)
Farage has built an entire political caricature around a certain masculine ideal with an implicit nostalgia for when women knew their place. In an infamous tweet in 2010 Farage revealed his objection to maternity pay, a basic tenet of gender equality. Since then, he has repeatedly spoken of the need for women to choose between a career and a family as well as advocating to scrap anti-discrimination laws and the legislation which safeguards employees against sexual harassment. These are all EU directives which protect the rights of women and minority groups.
Anne Widecombe (top candidate, South West)
During Anne Widecombe’s 23 years in Parliament she voted against every single piece of pro-LGBT+ legislation and regularly voiced her anti-abortion stance. More recently, Widdecombe downplayed the sexual abuses of powerful men like Harvey Weinstein, saying of the women involved “there was a choice there”. She also called the largest Women’s March of all time in January 2018 “pathetic”, arguing that women already have “absolute equality”.
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Claire Fox (top candidate, North West)
Fox is a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party billed on Farage’s leaflet as a “writer” urging “left-wing democrats to deliver the (2016) referendum result”. No stranger to controversy, she was co-publisher of a Marxist magazine shut down for falsely accusing ITN of faking evidence of the Bosnian genocide. She has also opposed banning child porn and jihadi videos online while making a case for free speech in a podcast last month (listen from 15:40). Fox is also closely linked with Spiked, a US publication which has been accused of using “dark money” to “undermine feminism” and accused of pushing a low tax, low regulation agenda around the world.
Brian Monteith (top candidate, North East)
Monteith has called the gender pay gap an “absurd and dangerous fallacy”, which should tell us much of what we need to know about Monteith’s approach to women’s equality. He’s previously argued that women do not need to be on national governing bodies, denying the glass ceiling and using the spurious argument that “there were no women legislators to pass laws that gave women the vote – but it happened”. He has also recently downplayed the threat of climate change.
These four candidates are top-listed in their voting regions. With the Brexit Party currently leading the polls, it is very likely they will be taking seats in the new European Parliament. Is it really their views we want on the European stage when our neighbours ask “what kind of country” the UK is?
It is imperative that as many pro-Europeans as possible turn out to vote on May 23. Between now and then we need to be making the positive case for the EU, which has shown a long-standing commitment to equality. One that, clearly, we need more than ever.
Jenna Norman is campaign coordinator for Women for a People’s Vote.
