GB News criticises Labour misogyny taskforce, urges focus on foreign offenders
Source: GBNews · All GBNews reports
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Summary
The GB News segment, presented by Ben Leo, criticises the newly launched National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny announced by Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson. The taskforce brings together ministers, local leaders, academics, campaigners and women’s organisations to root out harmful misogynistic attitudes in society, starting with young people, then workplaces, online spaces and communities. It forms part of Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within 10 years.
Leo argues the initiative dodges root causes by not examining who is committing violence against women, particularly foreign national offenders and those without legal status. He cites the figure of more than 21,000 foreign national offenders subject to deportation living in the community at end-June 2026, notes the absence of comprehensive national data on immigration status and sexual offending, and calls for prioritising prosecutions, removals and integration over new committees. No guests appear; the piece is a direct-to-camera editorial.
Editorial Assessment
The broadcast accurately reports the taskforce’s existence, Phillipson’s quotes about shifting attitudes “back to the dark ages,” and the scale of the foreign-national-offender backlog, which official figures confirm reached 21,294 at end-June 2026. However, it frames the taskforce as a distraction from enforcement and deportation, omitting that the government has increased FNO returns (over 11,000 since July 2024) and that the VAWG strategy includes perpetrator programmes, policing improvements and prevention in schools. Viewers miss that the large majority of sexual and domestic offences are committed by UK-born men known to victims; foreign nationals are over-represented in some conviction data (roughly 14-26% of sexual-offence convictions while ~10-13% of population), but overall crime rates are broadly in line with population share once age-adjusted, per Migration Observatory analysis. The selective emphasis on migrant crime and cultural attitudes risks skewing perception toward immigration as the primary driver of VAWG when official strategies treat it as a societal issue spanning attitudes, online radicalisation and criminal justice failures. The absence of counter-data or Labour sources creates one-sided sourcing.
Key Moments
Labour’s solution to the violence against women crisis is a misogyny taskforce instead of deporting foreign criminals or examining immigration status in sexual offending
The taskforce is one element of a wider VAWG strategy that includes perpetrator monitoring, increased funding and policing; government has also expanded detention capacity and returned over 11,000 FNOs since 2024.
More than 21,000 foreign national offenders subject to deportation are being monitored in the community
Home Office/Migration transparency data confirm 21,294 FNOs living in the community at end-June 2026, up from earlier years.
Britain does not have comprehensive national crime breakdown by immigration status; the computer says no when asking how many sexual offences are committed by people here illegally
ONS, MoJ and Home Office do not routinely publish offence data by immigration status; nationality data exists but is incomplete and does not equate to legal status.
If politicians lecture the country about misogyny, immigration must not be off limits; we must ask about integration from countries with different attitudes toward women
While some analyses show foreign nationals over-represented in sexual offence convictions (14-26% vs ~11% population), official briefings stress most VAWG is by known UK perpetrators; cultural claims are presented without specific evidence linking taskforce scope to integration failures.
Women need violent offenders prosecuted, dangerous people off the streets, and foreign criminals deported rather than another taskforce on attitudes
The taskforce targets prevention through attitudes and early intervention as part of a 10-year plan; enforcement and deportation are separate Home Office priorities that have seen increased activity.
Notable Concerns
- Heavy partisan framing that presents the taskforce as unserious “lecturing” while downplaying its role in the broader 10-year VAWG halving strategy
- Over-reliance on the raw 21,000 FNO figure without noting it includes all offence types, many long-term residents, and that returns have risen under the current government
- Missing context that most VAWG is perpetrated by intimate partners or acquaintances, the majority UK-born
Sources Consulted
- Government launches National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny
- Record 20,000 foreign criminals avoid deportation
- Offender management statistics quarterly: January to March 2026
- Migration Observatory briefing: Migrants and Crime in the UK (2026)
- Foreign nationals convicted of quarter of sex assaults on women
- National taskforce launched to tackle misogyny across society
- Foreign National Offenders: UK Prison Population & Deportation Statistics
- Fact-checking Farage: Are foreigners more likely than Britons to commit sexual offences?