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There was fervour in Chelmsford’s Tindal Square – and a sea of pink. Hot pink berets. Baby pink Union Jack flags. Dogs with pink rain jackets. This was the ‘Pink Ladies’ protest, an anti-migrant group who portray themselves as being ordinary women trying to “save our kids”.
The organiser of last week’s rally was Orla Minihane, Reform UK’s vice-chair for Epping Forest who previously shared a stage with a member of a neo-Nazi group. Taking to the microphone, she listed five women who she said had been murdered “at the hands of an illegal migration catastrophe”. Behind her, pictures of the women were held up.
An incensed Minihane had a message for the Government. “We are not going to be sacrificial lambs to your multicultural nonsense anymore… They are coming in in their thousands everyday. Why should we have to live like this? We are under attack.”
The Pink Ladies was set up in June, following a series of protests against the Bell Hotel in Epping. During one of those rallies, Minihane spoke on stage and shared a microphone with Callum Barker, a member of Neo-Nazi group Homeland, a splinter organisation from Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s largest far-right group.
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In her speech, Minihane is heard saying “If I’ve got to wear a far-right title because that’s what the narrative is, then so be it.” The speech was then shared by prominent voices such as Mark Collett and Homeland itself. Minihane said she had no knowledge of Barker’s views before appearing alongside him.
The Pink Ladies are also financed by Restore Britain, the far-right group founded by former Reform UK member Rupert Lowe, who was sacked following allegations of threats of physical violence against Zia Yusuf.
Lowe has said that Restore provides funding for all street protests including the stages, sound systems and speakers, with promotional material carrying joint branding with Restore. Pink Lady organisers also told Byline Times that Lowe helped to get the group trademarked and that his movement provides legal advice and support. Despite their links to Restore Britain, organisers maintain they are not a far-right organisation.
Last month a motion was brought forward by two Labour councillors in Tower Hamlets, Mufeedah Bustin and Abdi Mohamed, who stated that “far-right extremists “were leading this movement “under the banner of keeping women and children safe”. In response, the Pink Ladies took to the streets again, this time in Whitechapel, in the heart of Tower Hamlets.
The organisation has consistently protested against Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, attempting to enter the building earlier this month during an investigation session into grooming gangs and blaming him for the rise in immigration.
Despite their links to the far-right, the group has also received the backing of prominent Conservative politicians.
At the time of their protest against Khan, Susan Hall, the leader of the Conservatives on the London Assembly and the party’s former mayoral candidate posted on Facebook, saying the Pink Lady protests was “not hate crime and it’s certainly not terror-related”. Hall has previously been found supporting Enoch Powell on social media, engaging in Islamophobic posts about Khan, and sharing conspiracy theories about the 2020 American election. She is also on the advisory board of Restore Britain. At a recent protest, she said: “I am here because I am a Pink Lady.”
Despite all this, The Conservative party did not respond to questions from Byline Times about Hall’s activity.
The group has also been given multiple platforms by broadcast media organisations, including GB News and Talk TV, where they are regular guests. In July Sarah White, one of their more vocal members,was arrested on public order charges for unfurling a Union Jack flag during an anti-migrant protest against the Bell Hotel. She was given ten minutes live on GB News to settle the score, lambasting the police and telling viewers her arrest was “unlawful and brutal”
The Channel has also interviewed members of the group alongside Conservative London Assembly Member Susan Hall.
Despite the controversies surrounding the group, since October, when the Pink Lady’s Facebook page was set up, their membership has skyrocketed. It now stands at over thirteen thousand. There has been a ripple effect across the country. Several communities have organised local groups, as far north as Inverness and south to the Kent coast, each setting up their own social media accounts as Pink Lady franchises.
Big hitters from Reform like Sarah Pochin have helped to boost their numbers, too. “These are mums like myself who are scared to death to let their girls go into town… We know that the incumbents in [the Bell hotel] and in ones I’ve had in my constituency are more likely to commit sexual assault, if not rape, in our communities. It’s a fact,” she told GB News.
Anti-racist groups say the Pink Ladies are part of a broader anti-migrant movement. Georgina Laming, Director of Campaigns at HOPE not hate, said: “Whilst there is genuine local and peaceful protest around violence against women, it is clear that once again, the far-right are attempting to co-opt this issue for their wider anti-migrant agenda.
“To stop this there has to be legitimate engagement with communities about the safety of women and girls, and proper legal response to the current cases involving people seeking asylum who are accused of sexual assault that prioritises justice for all victims.”
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Dr Sharmila Parmanand, Assistant Professor of Gender, Development and Globalisation at the London School of Economics said: “We’re seeing a very deliberate reframing of migration as a threat to women’s safety, but there is no credible evidence that new arrivals are more likely to commit crime.”
Parmanand points out that what limited evidence there is related to violence against women and girls shows that the majority of crimes against women and girls are actually committed by men they know. She added: “Isolated incidents are being amplified, with women sometimes serving as the face of anti-migrant messaging. Unfortunately, this can lend legitimacy to anti-migrant narratives and inoculates them against criticism because any challenge can be seen as dismissing women’s voices and concerns for safety.”
A spokesperson for the Pink Ladies said: “Women in pink standing up for the safety of women and children is not far-right, it’s just right.”