JK Rowling has suggested Nigel Farage is “woke” after a Reform UK adviser revealed she opposes a blanket ban on trans women in female prisons.
JK Rowling has publicly criticised Nigel Farage after his newly appointed justice adviser, Vanessa Frake, rejected the blanket ban, instead calling for individual risk-based assessments.
Frake, a former prison governor who has overseen high-security facilities housing notorious inmates like Rose West and Myra Hindley, argued that every prisoner should be assessed individually.
“There are equally vile women as there possibly are trans women,” she said. “So it’s all about the risk assessments for me, and each has to be done on an individual basis.”
She also pushed back against those calling for categorical exclusions, saying: “People who want to just say a blanket ban clearly have never stepped foot in a prison and seen how prison runs and how risk assessments on individuals happen.”
Farage, questioned at a press conference on Monday about Frake’s remarks, admitted he lacked personal experience in the prison system.
“I personally never worked in a prison, so I can’t answer [that],” he said, before adding: “But I think you’ll find that the answer you get from somebody who has worked in prisons at the highest possible level is, I think basically it’s about risk assessment.”
JK Rowling said: “Genuinely surprised anyone’s shocked by this. Just because huge swathes of the left have revealed themselves to be dripping in misogyny doesn’t mean a massive chunk of the right doesn’t remain exactly as indifferent to women’s rights and issues as it’s always been.”
A Reform UK spokesperson later clarified that Frake’s comments represent a personal opinion and are not official party policy. They described her statement as “a different opinion” offered in her capacity as an adviser to Colin Sutton’s task force.