Overview
- Policy chief Zia Yusuf said adults convicted of raping children under 16 would receive whole‑life orders with no parole under a Reform government.
- The party says the measure would apply to offenders who were 18 or older at the time of the crime, with an intention to cover historic abuse subject to work on how to implement it.
- Reform estimates roughly 500 additional prisoners each year and proposes deportations and rapid‑build “Nightingale” prisons, including 12,400 places on Ministry of Defence land.
- England and Wales currently have no statutory minimum sentence for child sexual abuse, and recent grooming‑gang cases have drawn criticism over comparatively short terms.
- Coverage cites Keighley convictions from the 1990s and notes Attorney General Lord Hermer declined to refer some sentences; by contrast, whole‑life orders today are rare, with 70 prisoners on such terms as of March 2025.