Zia Yusuf announces plans for mandatory sentences with no parole, as party targets grooming gangs
Child rapists would be jailed for life if Reform UK wins the next election, its head of policy has said.
Under plans announced by Zia Yusuf on Saturday, the party would introduce mandatory whole-life orders for offenders convicted of the crime, making them ineligible for parole, as part of a crackdown on grooming gangs.
Reform said its intention was for “mandatory minimums to apply to historic child sexual abuse to ensure that heinous historic crimes are also sentenced proportionally”.
There were 677 convictions for rape of children under the age of 16 in 2024, according to Ministry of Justice data. These figures relate to the number of convictions rather than the number of people convicted.
