Police appeal to woman after Reform UK audience row

[IwantToRetire]

Police have asked a woman who had her hair and head grabbed at the Reform UK conference to come forward as they carry out an investigation.

Footage circulating on social media has shown audience members pulling the protester back as disorder broke out during the event at Birmingham's NEC.

Demonstrators were thrown out of the party's annual conference after interrupting Nigel Farage's keynote speech.

West Midlands Police said: "We're aware of a video circulating from the Reform UK Conference showing an incident with a protester. We haven't received a complaint but would ask the woman involved to come forward and contact us so we can carry out enquiries."

Article continues at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyznj31l3no

I hadn't heard about this until I saw this AIBU thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5575361-aibu-to-be-shocked-at-the-violence-towards-women-at-the-reform-conference?page=1

I turned on Broadcasting House on radio 4 this morning when they in the middle of discussing this - one of the guys in the discussion was a journalist who.was actually present in the conference hall. After the programme finished I looked for the video of the incident. Even though the discussion I'd heard had prepared me to some extent I just found the violence used against this young women absolutely shocking.
How on earth has politics in this country sunk so low?

Thanks for posting this. I haven't seen the video but from the AIBU thread it appears to have been not just over the top but some cheering them on.

And also good to know that the police are following it up, and the media, well the BBC, aren't just ignoring it.

I hope she feels.able to.come forward. Undoubtedly she'll be doxxed, terrorised and threatened with SA if she does, though - all by people who claim to 'protect women and children'.

Depressingly predictable how often those claiming to save us from Muslims and trans people are also violent, angry types with a vitriolic hatred of young women.

Above all I hope she is being supported, and recovers well.

I was assaulted at Reform’s conference – the party celebrates attacks on women’
https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/06/i-assaulted-reforms-conference-party-celebrates-attacks-women-29546795/

It’s that endless problem with authoritarianism as a political force. A lot of people who are attracted to it have no problem with using force against others if they think they can get away with it.

Reform has coasted pretty far on liberal mistakes like confusing “human rights for gender non-conforming people” with “gender non-conforming people can make up whatever facts they like and we all have to nod along no matter what,” but unfortunately for them with serious political power comes serious political and social scrutiny.

And as the Jason Ardey fiasco has demonstrated so very recently, if you elevate people without due diligence because you’re desperate to make an ideological point it tends to backfire. Reform has literally hundreds of people working for them who can’t withstand even the basic scrutiny that comes with a public political profile. It’s coming out more and more all the time.

I watched ch4 coverage of the conference and they screened the section where Farage said oh look we have a screamer, boring. Im quite shocked that the news coverage didn’t mention what was happening to the protester.

Totally vile, they behaved like animals, pulling at her hair and hitting her. She should report it to the police.

Thugs.

Wow I just watched it they way they were pulling at her hair and wouldn’t let her walk it was like a zombie apocalypse scene

This isnt the lady that was attacked but the whole scene is a horror movie. Men surrounding a woman, grabbing at her, while two old women laugh/film in the background. In the actual footage the woman was attacked by an elderly woman, grabbed by the hair.

One cannot understand how these people delude themselves into thinking this is okay, or that they are doing the right thing. They will have convinced themselves they are right.

Never harm another person. Thats my starting position. I actually feel sad for the perpetrators as they truly are deluded and their lives are wrapped up in hatred and ill will.

They were absolutely vicious and it was so shocking to see older people being so purposefully violent. Surely they should know better!

I hope she comes forward but, as previous posters have said, I’m sure she’s worried about things becoming even worse.

Those people ought to be publicly named and shamed at the very least, they were completely appalling.

Images like this are now being used to make it seem Reform is all older white people who are violent! (being shared via facebook etc.)

Hope image gets past inspection...

James O'Brien, despite being a twat about TWAW, had a good phone in on this. Yesterday, I think.

I don't see why she has to come forward. Isn't there already sufficient evidence to prosecute?

I suppose it may also be, as both this woman and the other woman, were doing it based on their politics, they dont particularly want to go down the police, court route.

And are hoping that the bad publicity is achieving as much as a long drawn out legal case. If there was a court case, no doubt some defence will be put forward that all these elderly, vulnerable (needs to use a walking stick m'lud), etc., were so scared they reacted with fear and trembling!

Its quite sickening. A violent mob attacking a young woman, hitting her, pulling her hair, manhandling her. Farage laughing, and then saying something along the lines of 'looks like she might cause herself an injury '. He was goading them on.

But - instructive. It reveals a lot.

They've had it. Who could vote Reform after that performance?

Not only did it reveal them as vicious and violent but belied any claims to be in support of free speech and shows them as so utterly thin skinned and defensive they can't handle a young woman standing up and shouting. Pathetic.

'The response of party members to the protests has since been backed by senior Reform figures.

The party’s Shadow Chancellor told Sky News: ‘Boohoo… You take your chances if you go to a party conference and try and mess it up.

‘We are now in a country where a far-left protester goes into a party conference, tries to wreck the leader’s speech, and cries foul if a pensioner knocks her over the head with a zimmer frame. Come on, get a life.’

Heckling at party conference is par for the course and not a very big deal.

Mob assaults of women are sickening, and the leaders' responses are most telling of all.

Related, in terms of the attitudes of people who presume to say they represent "Britishness".

Apparently there have been attacks on RNLI volunteers because they have on occasions done what they volunteer for.

Which is whoever they are, if they are in danger at sea they will launch a lifeboat and try and help.

Jesus I had missed all this. This is fucking horrific.

Reform have never been and will never be a friend of women.

Reform is looking more and more like an absolute danger to Britishness and British values. It would be like putting 80s-style football hooligans in charge.

More and more? Their only reason to exist was to damage the UK, which they have unfortunately done.

For a lot of people who aren’t especially interested in politics, Reform’s been playing a blinder just by criticising the bit of the left who’ve just spent the past 10 years pretending acknowledging basic reproductive biology at all is bigotry.

A lot of us have had to spend considerable effort reestablishing basic scientific credibility and fighting for rights we thought were settled, while Reform made hay. You’re not exactly on the moral high ground here.

Absolutely. The insanity of some on the left in claiming that TWAW, the horrors inflicted on vulnerable children, the obvious unfairness in women’s sports and men’s demands to access women’s single sex spaces are a gift to any opposition party. The Democrats in the US have been told this helped push Trump to victory and haven’t learned their lesson. The Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the LibDems and parts of the Labour Party are cheerleaders for Farage if they continue to promote this. Come on sensible moderate people who don’t batter women and who do believe in rights for everyone, your country definitely needs you.

TWAW wasn't exclusively uttered by the left unless you are claiming previous a Tory PM and her ministers are "the left", which would suggest a very novel political outlook.

What the UK needs now are some economy realists to undo the damage celebrated by Reform UK and other unpatriotic supporters of that act of gross self harm.