A deeply concerning new tactic is being deployed by far-right groups across Britain, a Guardian investigation can reveal. They are cynically appropriating the vital issue of violence against women and girls (VAWG), not to seek genuine solutions, but to fuel division, racism, and their own political agendas.
The strategy, which researchers have dubbed the 'go-to trope', involves seizing on high-profile, tragic cases of violence—particularly those involving a migrant perpetrator—to launch a coordinated online and offline campaign. The true aim is to stoke public fear, direct anger towards minority communities, and systematically erode trust in the police, judiciary, and government.
The Playbook of Exploitation
Their method follows a predictable and dangerous pattern:
- Amplification: Isolate a specific crime and flood social media platforms with graphic details and out-of-context information.
- Scapegoating: Deliberately shift the narrative from male violence to the nationality or immigration status of the perpetrator, painting entire communities with the same brush.
- Mobilisation: Use the manufactured outrage to organise protests, often outside courts or immigration centres, positioning themselves as the sole defenders of women's safety.
This approach allows these groups to cloak their extremist ideologies in a veneer of social concern, making their messaging more palatable and reaching a wider, often concerned, audience.
Weaponising Trauma, Undermining Trust
Campaigners and experts who have dedicated their lives to ending VAWG are sounding the alarm. They argue this exploitation is profoundly damaging on multiple fronts.
It hijacks the conversation away from the complex, deep-rooted causes of gender-based violence—such as pervasive misogyny and structural inequality—and reduces it to a simplistic, xenophobic soundbite. Furthermore, it risks further traumatising victims and survivors by turning their suffering into a political football.
Perhaps most insidiously, the far-right's campaign actively undermines the very institutions essential for protecting women. By relentlessly attacking the police and courts as 'failures' or 'complicit', they seek to break down societal structures, creating a vacuum they promise to fill.
A Call for Vigilance
This reporting underscores a critical need for media literacy and public vigilance. The far-right's co-option of women's safety is a manipulative tool designed to recruit support and normalise hate. Recognising this tactic for what it is—a dangerous and cynical ploy—is the first step in countering its corrosive effect on UK society and the fight for genuine gender equality.
