Gawain Towler

Reform UK is facing growing internal pressure after its crushing defeat in Makerfield, with senior figures openly questioning the party’s strategy, candidate selection and appeal to female voters.

The setback has triggered soul-searching behind the scenes and renewed scrutiny of Nigel Farage’s leadership team at a moment when Reform hopes to present itself as a government-in-waiting.

Woman Problem Moves Into the Spotlight

The most striking criticism has come from within Reform’s own ranks. Party board member and former communications chief Gawain Towler warned that the result should serve as a “wake-up call” over the party’s standing with women.

His intervention followed controversy surrounding candidate Robert Kenyon, whose past social media comments about women became a major issue during the campaign. Reform initially dismissed criticism of the remarks, but party insiders now acknowledge the issue resonated strongly with voters on the doorstep.

Makerfield Exposes a Strategic Weakness

The defeat was particularly damaging because Makerfield appeared to be the type of constituency Reform needs to win if it is to translate polling strength into parliamentary power.

Just weeks earlier, the party had enjoyed success in local elections in the area. Yet Labour’s Andy Burnham secured a commanding victory, winning by almost 10,000 votes and exposing the gap between local momentum and electoral breakthrough.

The result has intensified concerns over candidate vetting, campaign discipline and the party’s ability to broaden its appeal beyond its core support base.

Questions Grow Around the Leadership Team

Attention is also turning towards senior figures within Reform’s operation. Some insiders believe the party’s messaging has drifted into territory that alienates moderate voters while failing to satisfy those on the party’s right flank.

Critics argue that high-profile rhetoric on issues such as immigration has created political vulnerabilities, while rivals continue to compete for support among more hard-line voters.

Silence Fuels Speculation

The pressure was heightened by Reform’s decision to decline invitations to several Sunday political programmes following the defeat.

While party officials insisted there was no significance to the move, opponents portrayed the absence as an attempt to avoid difficult questions.

For a party built on challenging the political establishment, Makerfield has become more than a by-election loss. It has exposed deeper questions about organisation, discipline and whether Reform can expand beyond protest politics into a credible electoral force.

Reform ducks Sunday shows as Farage ally admits it has a woman problem

How many female Prime Ministers have the Labour Party produced?

14 minutes ago, bannork said:

Gawain Towler

Reform UK is facing growing internal pressure after its crushing defeat in Makerfield, with senior figures openly questioning the party’s strategy, candidate selection and appeal to female voters.

The setback has triggered soul-searching behind the scenes and renewed scrutiny of Nigel Farage’s leadership team at a moment when Reform hopes to present itself as a government-in-waiting.

Woman Problem Moves Into the Spotlight

The most striking criticism has come from within Reform’s own ranks. Party board member and former communications chief Gawain Towler warned that the result should serve as a “wake-up call” over the party’s standing with women.

His intervention followed controversy surrounding candidate Robert Kenyon, whose past social media comments about women became a major issue during the campaign. Reform initially dismissed criticism of the remarks, but party insiders now acknowledge the issue resonated strongly with voters on the doorstep.

Makerfield Exposes a Strategic Weakness

The defeat was particularly damaging because Makerfield appeared to be the type of constituency Reform needs to win if it is to translate polling strength into parliamentary power.

Just weeks earlier, the party had enjoyed success in local elections in the area. Yet Labour’s Andy Burnham secured a commanding victory, winning by almost 10,000 votes and exposing the gap between local momentum and electoral breakthrough.

The result has intensified concerns over candidate vetting, campaign discipline and the party’s ability to broaden its appeal beyond its core support base.

Questions Grow Around the Leadership Team

Attention is also turning towards senior figures within Reform’s operation. Some insiders believe the party’s messaging has drifted into territory that alienates moderate voters while failing to satisfy those on the party’s right flank.

Critics argue that high-profile rhetoric on issues such as immigration has created political vulnerabilities, while rivals continue to compete for support among more hard-line voters.

Silence Fuels Speculation

The pressure was heightened by Reform’s decision to decline invitations to several Sunday political programmes following the defeat.

While party officials insisted there was no significance to the move, opponents portrayed the absence as an attempt to avoid difficult questions.

For a party built on challenging the political establishment, Makerfield has become more than a by-election loss. It has exposed deeper questions about organisation, discipline and whether Reform can expand beyond protest politics into a credible electoral force.

Reform ducks Sunday shows as Farage ally admits it has a woman problem

It's not only a problem with women. It is a problem with lying, with fielding incompetent candidates, with having a gaslighting grifting leader who is now being exposed, and with having no actual policies other than shouting at boats.

This is a really good opinion piece from a coupe of days ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/19/reform-candidates-nigel-farage-makerfield-prime-minister?CMP=share_btn_url

24 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

It's not only a problem with women. It is a problem with lying

Name a political figure who does not lie.

@Chomper Higgot since you gave me a downvote. Do you think that politicians never lie and are all noble?

22 minutes ago, TedG said:

Name a political figure who does not lie.

I have never fact checked checked every single statement of every single political figure.

But there are ones who are generally decent and honest. And there are habitual liars. Farage falls in to the latter camp.

10 hours ago, TedG said:

@Chomper Higgot since you gave me a downvote. Do you think that politicians never lie and are all noble?

I had one for saying Labour had never had a female PM, guess he’s misogynistic.

10 hours ago, TedG said:

Name a political figure who does not lie.

Identify specific instances of the following lying, while in office, or seeking office:

Jimmy Carter

Vaclav Havel

John McCain

Charles De Gaulle

Lee Kuan Yew

Clement Atlee

Tip O'Neill

Do not confuse political dislike or expediency with "lying". An inability to prove universal innocence does not prove universal guilt.

"Name a political figure who does not lie" is not a fair challenge. I can't prove that any politician has never lied, just as you can't prove that every politician has lied. The inability to name someone who is certainly truthful doesn't demonstrate that all politicians are dishonest. By the same logic, if I asked you to name a scientist, doctor, or teacher who has never lied in their entire life, failing to do so wouldn't prove that all scientists, doctors, or teachers are liars.

Why should politicians be held to a standard that you don't apply to yourself? Can you name a business executive, journalist, academic, or ordinary person who can be proven never to have lied? When was the last time you lied? If not, does that mean everyone in those professions is inherently dishonest? Of course not.

We don't need to identify a politician who can be proven never to have lied. We only need to identify politicians for whom there is no established finding or widely accepted evidence of deliberate lying. There are many such figures. The burden remains on you, claiming that every politician lies, to demonstrate intentional deception by each individual politician, not merely to point out that perfect proof of lifelong honesty is unattainable.

11 hours ago, TedG said:

@Chomper Higgot since you gave me a downvote. Do you think that politicians never lie and are all noble?

Everyone lies.

Reform UK Ltd, and Farage in particular, are better at it than most.

1 hour ago, sungod said:

I had one for saying Labour had never had a female PM, guess he’s misogynistic.

Perhaps your deflection from Reform UK Ltd’s women problem deserved a down vote.

That photograph in the OP looks like a Central Cssting NAZI villain from a 1960s film!

33 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Perhaps your deflection from Reform UK Ltd’s women problem deserved a down vote.

No comment on Labour’s appalling record on female PMs?

In starmer they had a pussy, with Burnham they now have a fanny, guess they are getting closer.

1 minute ago, sungod said:

No comment on Labour’s appalling record on female PMs?

In starmer they had a pussy, with Burnham they now have a fanny, guess they are getting closer.

Not in a thread about Reform UK Ltd, no

13 hours ago, sungod said:

How many female Prime Ministers have the Labour Party produced?

No need when there are puppet masters like Rachel Reeves and misfits like Angela Rayner.

Hopefully, the UK labour party never has a useless incompetent PM like Liz Truss or a blunderer like Theresa May. Their collective legacy was a factor in the Starmer Labour landslide. The UK is now so financially impaired and damaged that not even Thatcher could fix the economy.

But there are ones who are generally decent and honest. And there are habitual liars. Farage falls in to the latter camp.

If you mean that what he says often doesn't agree with what you read on the BBC or MSM, I'd agree.

But who's lying?

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Not in a thread about Reform UK Ltd, no

It’s also a thread about females in politics,

It’s fine, we know you can’t defend the male dominated Labour Leadership record.

2 hours ago, sungod said:

No comment on Labour’s appalling record on female PMs?

I'll comment , Harriet Harman supported a pedo group and Diane Abbot is well, "unique" all lefty women are nightmares, how could one ever be allowed to become PM god forbid !

2 hours ago, sungod said:

In starmer they had a pussy,

correction Kier Starmer was officially a "wa*k*r" somebody even wrote a song celebrating it

40 minutes ago, sungod said:

It’s also a thread about females in politics,

Lets be honest lads , allowing them to vote was fair enough, but that should have been the end of the matter,

42 minutes ago, sungod said:

It’s also a thread about females in politics,

It’s fine, we know you can’t defend the male dominated Labour Leadership record.

its actually very difficult to find anything positive at all regarding Labours leadership or indeed their performance in general

53 minutes ago, sungod said:

It’s also a thread about females in politics,

It’s fine, we know you can’t defend the male dominated Labour Leadership record.

Really, what with Starmer appointing tge most women to cabinet of any PM?

16 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

its actually very difficult to find anything positive at all regarding Labours leadership or indeed their performance in general

Well there’s the employments rights act and the renters rights act.

Though I gather improving workers rights is not something many here agree , let alone improving the rights of tenants.

What on earth are Labour doing not looking after the hyper wealthy?!

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Chomper Higgot

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Really, what with Starmer appointing tge most women to cabinet of any PM?

I thought you weren’t commenting 🤣

More u turns than 2 Tier Kier!!!!

5 hours ago, JAG said:

That photograph in the OP looks like a Central Cssting NAZI villain from a 1960s film!

Given the state of his teeth, its a good ad on the evils of smoking.

4 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

No need when there are puppet masters like Rachel Reeves and misfits like Angela Rayner.

Hopefully, the UK labour party never has a useless incompetent PM like Liz Truss or a blunderer like Theresa May. Their collective legacy was a factor in the Starmer Labour landslide. The UK is now so financially impaired and damaged that not even Thatcher could fix the economy.

Thatcher never "fixed" the economy. It was her choices as Chancellor who did the heavy lifting (except for Lamont, who ballsed things up).

Reeves is now a "puppet master"? I thought she was "Rachel from Accounts"? Now you are promoting her? On what effing basis is Angela Rayner a "misfit"? Because she, like 1 in 10 MPs, never went to University? Wrong accent? Red hair?

Nobody has to like Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, or Labour. There are plenty of substantive criticisms that can be made of all three. But describing Reeves as a "puppet master" and Rayner as a "misfit" is sneering invective masquerading as insight.

The discussion was about Labour never having elected a female leader. Rather than engaging with that point, you pivot to portraying two of Labour's most senior women as either sinister manipulators or social oddities.

That is a familiar trope in politics: men are often described as strategists, powerbrokers, kingmakers; women somehow become "puppet masters", schemers, or objects of ridicule.

That does not mean criticism of Reeves or Rayner is automatically misogynistic. Both are politicians, and politicians should expect scrutiny. But when the response to a discussion about women's representation is to single out prominent women with loaded, gendered insults, it is entirely fair to ask whether there is more going on than mere disagreement over policy.

You decided to use terms such as "puppet master" and "misfit" because you think they sound transgressive, irreverent and edgy. You can oppose Labour, think Starmer lacks vision, dislike Reeves' fiscal approach, or disagree with Rayner's politics without lapsing into schoolyard labels.

If the objection is that Labour has never produced a female leader, debate that.

If the objection is that Reeves or Rayner are ineffective, argue that on the basis of their decisions and record.

But replacing arguments with sneers about women being "puppet masters" and "misfits" does little to advance the discussion and tends to reinforce exactly the stereotypes that have historically made it harder for women in politics to be judged by the same standards as men.

You pick on the women, but not the men. The men who were in power, and the men who were in that voting booth deciding which box to tick. You've reduced voters to mere automatons, easily manipulated. Well, they were in 2016, and that act was what really ruined the economy. So maybe the blame for breaking the United Kingdom lies with the grifting goose stepping chancers like Farage, and the unelected duplicitous schemers, with a dodgy past, like Cummings.

4 hours ago, sungod said:

It’s also a thread about females in politics,

It’s fine, we know you can’t defend the male dominated Labour Leadership record.

Actually, its not. Its a thread about the Reform Party. You hijacked the thread to deflect away from the topic.

Rather than address a single point in the article posted by bannork, your response, which was the first in the thread, was:

How many female Prime Ministers have the Labour Party produced?

The article wasn't about whether Reform should have a female leader, it was about messaging to all voters and candidate selection. You introduced a Strawman then whine that the thread is about the deflecting topic you posted. You refused to address the actual topic, because you don't want to read any critique of of Nigel and Lee.

And now you pretend to be the majority ("we"). You're not. You are a Threadjacker, a conversational narcissist.

Considering they cannot define what a woman is, it is hard to see how they can be against them.

In the photo Gawain Towler looks like he is on some form of medication. Definitely not playing with a full stack.

21 minutes ago, Roadsternut said:

Actually, its not. Its a thread about the Reform Party. You hijacked the thread to deflect away from the topic.

Rather than address a single point in the article posted by bannork, your response, which was the first in the thread, was:

The article wasn't about whether Reform should have a female leader, it was about messaging to all voters and candidate selection. You introduced a Strawman then whine that the thread is about the deflecting topic you posted. You refused to address the actual topic, because you don't want to read any critique of of Nigel and Lee.

And now you pretend to be the majority ("we"). You're not. You are a Threadjacker, a conversational narcissist.

There are a few prominent female politicians in Reform- Suella Braverman, Sarah Pochin, and Dame Andrea Jenkyns.

The party even has a "Women for Reform" campaign to attract female voters, and like Trump who manages to attract female voters despite his openly contemptuous views, e.g. ' grab 'em by the pussy', Reform clearly has plenty of female supporters, as seen in its results in the recent council elections.

But it's a fair bet a lot of its male supporters hold misogynist views like Rob Kenyon, and when exposed these are just not not acceptable to the vast majority of women today.

Reform are a one trick party- immigration, so long as this issue remains a burning topic, they'll receive female support but beyond that, they'll struggle imo.

8 hours ago, Roadsternut said:

Thatcher never "fixed" the economy. It was her choices as Chancellor who did the heavy lifting (except for Lamont, who ballsed things up).

Reeves is now a "puppet master"? I thought she was "Rachel from Accounts"? Now you are promoting her? On what effing basis is Angela Rayner a "misfit"? Because she, like 1 in 10 MPs, never went to University? Wrong accent? Red hair?

Nobody has to like Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, or Labour. There are plenty of substantive criticisms that can be made of all three. But describing Reeves as a "puppet master" and Rayner as a "misfit" is sneering invective masquerading as insight.

The discussion was about Labour never having elected a female leader. Rather than engaging with that point, you pivot to portraying two of Labour's most senior women as either sinister manipulators or social oddities.

That is a familiar trope in politics: men are often described as strategists, powerbrokers, kingmakers; women somehow become "puppet masters", schemers, or objects of ridicule.

That does not mean criticism of Reeves or Rayner is automatically misogynistic. Both are politicians, and politicians should expect scrutiny. But when the response to a discussion about women's representation is to single out prominent women with loaded, gendered insults, it is entirely fair to ask whether there is more going on than mere disagreement over policy.

You decided to use terms such as "puppet master" and "misfit" because you think they sound transgressive, irreverent and edgy. You can oppose Labour, think Starmer lacks vision, dislike Reeves' fiscal approach, or disagree with Rayner's politics without lapsing into schoolyard labels.

If the objection is that Labour has never produced a female leader, debate that.

If the objection is that Reeves or Rayner are ineffective, argue that on the basis of their decisions and record.

But replacing arguments with sneers about women being "puppet masters" and "misfits" does little to advance the discussion and tends to reinforce exactly the stereotypes that have historically made it harder for women in politics to be judged by the same standards as men.

You pick on the women, but not the men. The men who were in power, and the men who were in that voting booth deciding which box to tick. You've reduced voters to mere automatons, easily manipulated. Well, they were in 2016, and that act was what really ruined the economy. So maybe the blame for breaking the United Kingdom lies with the grifting goose stepping chancers like Farage, and the unelected duplicitous schemers, with a dodgy past, like Cummings.

Reeves was a key player in the ouster of Sir Keir. When the common sense members of the cabinet attempted to rein in her expansion of a self destructive welfare state she threatened to incite a revolt of her cabal of extremist left wing members. Not promoting her, but recognizing her as the destructive manipulative nasty person that she is. Andy will do well to be rid of her asap.

Rayner is untrustworthy and had no concern for the family of the married man she entered into an affair with. If Labour has not been able to elect a PM that is a reflection of ingrained misogyny of the party and the inability of the "women" to gain support through consensus building. A female PM is not going to change the direction of the party. Hopefully, it will have fractured bleeding its extremist supporters to other extremist parties.