Labour has called on Nigel Farage to take action after an image emerged from a Reform local election stunt depicting female cabinet ministers as cows in an abattoir.
The roadside setup in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, shows deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves and education secretary Bridget Phillipson depicted as cows waiting to be slaughtered.
The stunt, pictured by a passerby and passed to The Independent, was damned as “dehumanising” and “misogynistic”.
It has shocked political parties in Westminster, where MPs, including Mr Farage, are having to take extra security measures to protect themselves from potential attacks.
The imagery of a slaughterhouse has brought back memories of attacks on MPs, including the deaths of Labour’s Jo Cox and the later Tory MP David Amess.
Other MPs have been attacked, including Labour minister Stephen Timms, who was stabbed. And the danger faced by politicians was underlined last week when homes linked to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer were set on fire.
A Labour spokesperson said: “This is a dehumanising and misogynistic portrayal of hardworking female cabinet members who are delivering change for our country on behalf of the British people.
“If Nigel Farage wants his party to be in any way seen as remotely professional, he should start by condemning this ‘stunt’ and confirming nothing like this will happen again.”
A Lib Dem spokesperson added: “This is horrifically misogynistic and, after seeing politicians murdered in recent years, inferring that some should also be sent to an abattoir cannot be dressed up as anything other than an attack on democracy.
“Nigel Farage needs to step in and launch a full investigation, and anyone associated with this vile stunt must be expelled from Reform.”
The stunt was bedecked with Reform posters during a hard-fought campaign where the party gained 677 council seats and two mayoralties across the country.
There is no evidence to link it to any national campaign.
Reform did not initially answer questions on the issue, but responding to The Independent at a press conference in London, Mr Farage said: “All sorts of appalling things get said and done by people fighting in elections, at local and national level, and we get it done to us.
“If one or two of our people do it to them, maybe they think it’s funny. It probably isn’t very funny.
“I can’t pretend we’re perfect. What I can tell you is that one of the ways in which we have professionalised this party is to put people through a vetting process. And I think we’ve come up with a slate of elected councillors and mayors and a new MP that we can genuinely be very proud of.
“If there is the odd lapse in taste, then I regret it, but it’s kind of called politics.”
