Nigel Farage's cowardice and ego is slapping betrayed Britons in face all over again

OPINION

Back in January, Reform UK made a bold promise. They said they would do what the political class had failed to do for decades — launch an independent inquiry into the industrial-scale rape gang scandal that has plagued towns and cities across our country. An inquiry that would not just target the perpetrators, but the enablers — the councillors, police officers, social workers, and senior officials who knew what was happening and did nothing.

It was the right call. It was long overdue. And it gave a flicker of hope to the countless victims who have been failed by our institutions at every level. But what happened next? Nigel Farage did what Nigel Farage always does: he lost interest, moved on, and buried the commitment. No explanation. No apology. Just another flip-flop in a long line of media stunts and slogans.

Instead of action, we got another round of flashy videos, another round of “Britain needs Reform!” adverts — all gloss, no substance.

And now, we're being told that maybe, just maybe, Reform will hold an inquiry after the next election. If they win. If they’re in government. If they remember. That is not good enough. Not even close.

Reform UK is not in government. They know that. We know that. Labour, like it or not, is in power until 2029 — and they’ve made it perfectly clear they will stand in the way of any statutory national inquiry.

So what is Reform’s answer? Not to hold the inquiry they pledged, but to team up with a Labour peer in a bid to force Starmer to hold an inquiry. What evidence is there that this will be successful? There seems to be far more that it'll be a flop.

Rupert Lowe, a man with more integrity than the entire Reform leadership combined, has launched a crowdfunded inquiry into the rape gang scandal. No Westminster red tape.

No political grandstanding. Just action. And what does Reform do? Ignore it. Distance themselves from it. Because this isn’t about justice for them — it’s about controlling the narrative.

This isn’t politics. This is about thousands of British girls and young women who were groomed, raped, brutalised, and then ignored. This is about a conspiracy of silence that runs deep through our institutions — a culture of fear, cowardice, and political correctness that allowed the most heinous crimes to continue for decades.

We already know the truth. We don’t need to “wait for power” to start doing something. We need to drag this rot into the light now. We need answers. We need accountability. And above all, we need justice — not in four years, but today.

Farage had the chance to lead. Instead, he chose headlines over honesty. He talks tough on immigration and crime, but when it comes to the hardest, most important fight of all — the battle for truth and justice for grooming gang victims — he’s bottled it.

Let’s not be fooled. Promising a statutory inquiry after getting into office, when you’re not even close to forming a government, is not leadership. It’s evasion. It’s cowardice. And it’s a slap in the face to every single survivor who’s been waiting for justice for 20 long years.

There is nothing stopping Reform from supporting Rupert Lowe’s inquiry, statutory powers or not. There is nothing stopping them from pressing forward now. Except, it seems, their own egos.

This scandal will not go away with time. It will not be solved by slogans. And it will certainly not be addressed by a party that only cares when the cameras are rolling.

To Farage and Reform: The victims deserve better than your broken promises. They need action, why wait?

Richard Thomson was the Reform UK candidate for Braintree in the 2024 General Election and served as a Royal Marine for eight years