UK hit by big freeze as Met Office extends weather warnings for snow and ice

Britons are set for a freezing first weekend of 2026 as Arctic winds bring a cold snap across the UK, prompting warnings of travel chaos and power cuts.

Multiple weather warnings for snow and ice issued for Friday have been extended into Monday, with as much as 40cm of snowfall possible in the highest parts of Scotland.

The Met Office has issued amber weather alerts for parts of Scotland from midday on Friday for 24 hours as forecasters warn harsh conditions pose a potential “risk to life”. It also warned that up to 20cm of snow could settle on low ground and up to 40cm on higher ground, and said disruption to road, rail and air travel was likely.

Rural communities could be cut off, with cars becoming stranded in heavy snow, and cuts to power and mobile phone services were possible, the forecaster said.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also issued amber cold health alerts for England until 9 January, warning that increased deaths are likely due to the freezing temperatures.

Yellow weather warnings are in place across swathes of south west England and Wales, with those on the east coast and south west extended into Monday.

On Saturday, yellow warnings remain in force in southwest England, and have also been issued along the east coast from Newcastle to Norwich. Temperatures are expected to settle at around 1C for most of the country, with the mercury dipping below freezing in parts of Scotland.

Icy conditions are set to move westwards on Sunday, with a yellow warning covering parts of Greater Manchester, Wales, and south west England from 3pm to midday on Monday, with temperatures remaining at around 1C.

Blizzards are expected across the UK, including in areas not covered by weather warnings. Showers are predicted to become increasingly wintry on Friday evening with some snow possible in Wales. These will move further inland during the early hours of Saturday, becoming frequent and perhaps heavy at times, forecasters said.

Around 1-3cm of snow is likely to accumulate widely, with 5-8 cm possible in places like the North York Moors throughout Saturday, according to the Met Office. The snow showers will gradually become lighter and less frequent during Saturday evening, and move offshore overnight.

Snow showers are expected to push further inland across Wales, parts of northwest England, the West Midlands and southwest England during Sunday evening. Around 1 to 3cm of snow is expected to fall in many places by Monday morning, with the potential for 5 to 8cm to build up in a few locations, particularly across inland and higher parts of Wales.

Forecasters are warning people to check travel conditions, leave extra time for journeys, and prepare for power cuts in the highest ground in Scotland.

Chief forecaster, Neil Armstrong, said: “With Arctic air now covering most of the UK, very cold weather will continue through the weekend, with minus double figures overnight in places and daytime temperatures struggling to rise above 0C for some.

“It looks like this cold spell could last well into next week and wintry hazards will continue with more weather warnings likely. It is therefore important people keep up to date with the latest forecast and warnings and plan ahead.”

Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, urged people to check on loved ones during the cold snap: “As the colder weather sets in, it is vital to check in on friends, family and neighbours that are most vulnerable.

“The forecast temperatures can have a serious impact on the health of some people, leading to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections, particularly for individuals over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing health conditions.”

Heavy snow showers across northern and northeast Scotland today. Rain and snow clearing further south, leaving sunny skies. Some wintry showers in the west and extreme east. Otherwise fine and dry, but feeling cold in the brisk northerly wind.

Frequent snow showers continue to affect areas exposed to the keen northerly wind, otherwise dry with long clear spells. Colder than recent nights with a hard frost developing.

A cold and frosty start for all on Saturday. Snow showers continue across windward coasts, further spells of prolonged snow likely across parts of northeast Scotland. Feeling very cold.

Plenty of sunshine through the period, though sleet and snow showers especially affecting areas exposed to the northerly wind. Remaining cold throughout with widespread night frosts. Showers easing from Monday.

Cold weather payments triggered in more than 400 postcodes – check if you’re eligible

The new year is off to a biting start, with areas across the UK being hit by freezing sub-zero temperatures.

Met Office weather warnings for snow and ice remain in place for the first week of 2026, with fears of health issues arising from the conditions.

To help support people during cold snaps like these, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) runs the cold weather payment scheme for qualifying households. This is a one-off payment of £25 that is triggered for every seven-day period where the temperature in an area is at or below zero degrees.

An estimated 674,000 households across 441 postcode areas can now expect a payment. These areas are split across the UK, covering northern and southern areas of England and Wales

Here are the the affected postcode areas for the period of 30 December 2025 to 2 January 2026:

Minister for Pensions Torsten Bell said: “As temperatures plunge, Cold Weather Payments will automatically get support directly to vulnerable households.

“Combined with the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign and our Triple Lock commitment – set to increase the State Pension by up to £2,100 over this Parliament – we’re ensuring pensioners get the support they need this Winter.”

The scheme runs from 1 November to 31 March every year. The payment is paid for every period during which a postcode area experiences seven or more days of freezing temperatures, meaning households can receive more than one payment. Several living the Lake District received three last year, valuing £75.

Those eligible for the cold weather payment must receive at least one of the following:

Those who are not receiving Pension Credit will also typically need to have a health condition, caring responsibilities, or young or disabled children.

They must also live in an area that has experienced seven days of zero or sub-zero temperatures.

The DWP uses its own equipment to measure temperatures across all UK postcodes. Those who disagree with the judgement are able to appeal directly to the department.

Although the affected areas cover parts of Scotland, those living in the country will not received a cold weather payment. The Scottish government has replaced the scheme with its annual Winter Heating Payments.

Those eligible will get the payment automatically. They should arrive in the same bank account they receive benefit payments, within 14 working days of the cold period, with the payment reference ‘DWP CWP’.

Those who believe they are eligible but have not received the payment should contact the DWP.

Below is the full list of over 400 postcodes eligible for the cold weather payment:

Tommy Lee Jones’ daughter Victoria found dead at 34 on New Year’s Day

Victoria Jones, the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, has been found dead at the age of 34.

Jones was discovered unresponsive in the early hours of New Year’s Day at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, according to TMZ and the Daily Mail, which cited sources.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department confirmed the news to media outlets, saying paramedics had been dispatched to the Fairmont Hotel at 2.52am.

“Our units responded to the scene, performed an assessment and declared one person deceased,” the spokesperson said, adding that the local police department and medical examiner’s office then took over.

The cause of death is not yet known.

The Independent has contacted the actor’s representatives for comment.

The Fairmont, located in San Francisco’s affluent Nob Hill neighbourhood, is one of the city’s most luxurious and historic hotels. Since opening in 1907, it has hosted presidents, royalty and Hollywood stars, and is famed as the place where Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”.

Victoria is the second child of Tommy and his second wife, Kimberlea Cloughley, to whom he was married from 1981 to 1996. They also share a son, Austin, who is 43.

Victoria played minor roles as an actor in her father’s films as a child, appearing in Men in Black II, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, plus the TV series One Tree Hill. She did not work as an actor as an adult, but frequently appeared alongside her father on red carpets around the world.

According to court records obtained by the New York Post, Victoria was arrested at least three times in 2025, including an apprehension on drug charges in Napa County, California, in April. She pleaded not guilty, according to the Post.

Tommy praised his daughter while promoting The Three Burials in 2006, saying: “She’s a good actress, has her SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card, speaks impeccable Spanish. When she was a baby, I told Leticia, her nurse, to speak to her in Spanish.”

In an interview with The New Yorker, he recalled her getting acclimatised to life as an actor. “She had to get up at 5am for her part,” he told the magazine. “One morning, she wouldn’t get out of bed. I said: ‘Honey, this is work.’ But she wouldn’t budge.

“So I fired her. Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”

Tommy Lee Jones is one of America’s most respected actors, known for acclaimed performances in films like JFK, No Country for Old Men, and Lonesome Dove.

He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1993 for his role in The Fugitive, co-starring Harrison Ford.

He married his third wife, Dawn Laurel, in 2001.

Will Smith sued by tour violinist for sexual harassment

Will Smith is being sued by a violinist who has accused the rapper and actor of sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Musician Brian King Joseph named Smith, 57, and Treybull Studios Management as defendants in the lawsuit filed on 30 December, according to US media.

Smith’s lawyer has denied the claims, telling the Daily Beast: “Mr Joseph’s allegations concerning my client are false, baseless, and reckless. They are categorically denied, and we will use all legal means available to address these claims and to ensure that the truth is brought to light.”

The Independent has contacted Smith’s lawyer and representatives for comment.

Variety reports that in the suit, Joseph, 33, accuses Smith of “predatory behaviour” while he was a part of the band on Smith’s Based on a True Story tour last year.

Joseph claims that Smith had been “grooming and priming” him for “further sexual exploitation” after they first met in November 2024, when Smith hired him to perform at a show in San Diego.

He was subsequently invited to join Smith’s 2025 tour and play on his first album in 20 years, Based on a True Story, which was released in March.

Joseph alleges that Smith told him they had “such a special connection that I don’t have with anyone else”.

The musician, who was a former contestant on America’s Got Talent in 2018, joined the first leg of Smith’s tour in March 2025 for a show in Las Vegas, where hotel rooms had been booked for the band and crew.

Joseph claims he returned to his room to find that someone had “unlawfully” entered the suite, in which he allegedly discovered a beer bottle, wipes, a bottle of HIV medication in someone else’s name, a red backpack, an earring and hospital discharge paperwork belonging to another person.

He alleges there was also a note that said: “Brian, I’ll be back no later [sic] 5.30, just us… Stone F.”

Joseph says he believed this was a message that “an unknown individual would soon return to his room to engage in sexual acts with him”.

After reporting the incident to hotel security and Smith’s tour management, he claims he was accused of lying and “shamed” for what happened.

He claims to have been fired days after the incident, when he was told the tour was “moving in a different direction”. However, another violinist was apparently then booked to replace him.

The lawsuit claims that he suffered from PTSD and financial loss as a result of the termination.

He is suing for retaliation, wrongful termination and sexual harassment, and asks that damages be determined by a jury.

Why I’m taking Nostradamus predictions more seriously this year

As someone who regularly consults psychics for advice and to guide my life decisions, I feel qualified to ask: what does Nostradamus say 2026 has in store for us?

The 16th-century French mystic’s predictions for the year ahead – made from the safe distance of several hundred years ago, but which have a habit of turning out to be spookily prescient – involve a “great swarm of bees”, a long summer “of unbearable heat”, and, more optimistically, the rise of a new or unexpected leader, described as the “man of light”.

What could it all mean? Might this bright hope be Zohran Mamdani, just sworn in as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, whose progressive agenda has ignited fresh hope among democratic socialists? Should we perhaps be braced for the Second Coming and the return of Jesus Christ himself?

Or does the fortune teller predict the return of George Osborne, the former chancellor who has just landed yet another job, with OpenAI, to help the world adopt and deploy AI technology responsibly? He’s already expecting a landmark year, having been instrumental in securing the Bayeux Tapestry’s return to the UK more than 900 years after its creation, for a blockbuster exhibition at the British Museum this autumn…

Before you scoff, bear in mind that one of Nostradamus’s grimmest predictions appears already to have come to pass: in Les Prophéties, his 1555 collection of poetic quatrains in French and Latin, he suggests that an idyllic spot in Switzerland will be “overflowing with blood”. He pointed to Ticino, the southernmost Swiss canton, rather than Crans-Montana, the upmarket ski resort in the southwest where 47 people perished in a fire on New Year’s Day. But, then, he also predicted the rise of Adolf “Hister”, so I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And, given the tragedy, shouldn’t we all at least listen? This year, the soothsayer held that the world will be in for “seven months [of] great war”, alongside a major battle between East and West (“three fires rise from the eastern sides, while the West loses its light in silence”) – a passage some have interpreted as the West losing its influence to Eastern powers, possibly China.

Nostradamus must be doing something right, though, if we’re still glued to his prophecies in 2026. After he predicted the Great Fire of London in 1666 (“The blood of the just will be lacking in London/ Burnt up in the fire of ’66”), he is said to have foreseen world-shaping events including the rise of Nazism, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, JFK’s assassination, the Apollo moon landings, 9/11, the death of Princess Diana, even the Covid pandemic.

Yet Nostradamus’s wildly ambiguous language lends itself to confirmation bias, allowing believers to retrofit his predictions to almost any modern crisis. He also gets plenty wrong. In 2024, for example, some claimed the abdication of Charles III was imminent and that Prince Harry was poised to take over as king, based on a quatrain suggesting that a “King of the Isles” would be “driven out by force” and “replaced by one who will have no mark of a king”.

Nostradamus never linked specific dates to his predictions, but followers believe the 26th quatrains of his text relate to the year ahead. From what I can gather, the outlook is a horror show.

In one passage, marked I:26, he writes: “The great swarm of bees will arise… by night the ambush…” – thought to be less about calling in Rentokil and more about global power struggles. Some have even connected it to Trump’s deal in Gaza and a potential victory over Ukraine for Putin. If Nostradamus is right, then 2026 looks set to be another conflict-filled year.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope. “Shadows will fall, but the man of light will rise,” he writes, adding: “And the stars will guide those who look within.”

I’m as on edge about who this “man of light” might be as I am about the new man in my own life that both of my psychics insist will arrive in 2026.

One of them was as cryptic as Nostradamus himself when she texted: “He is what humans would call a bit of a walking breakdown; functioning but under high stress… but if Charlotte were to understand that skipping ahead the quantum field time, she would be not thinking of it.”

Just as I thought I had deciphered that, the other psychic threw in a curveball: “I had a dream about you last night. You have a choice between two men – one of them on the horizon is a TV or film producer.”

Predictions from Nostradamus – or clairvoyants in Notting Hill – have a way of spinning me out. Last summer, the same psychic who warned me about a big decision in 2026 said: “You are going to meet a man – it’s very exciting.” Two weeks later, I did. She also warned me to stay away from horses, just as we were about to go pony trekking in Wales. I ignored her – and had a lovely ride.

Often, their timing is off. (I’m still waiting for a windfall of cash that I was assured would “come out of leftfield” in September.)

Nostradamus may yet be right or wrong about 2026, but I’m braced for whatever the new year brings. Man of light, man of my dreams… whoever, I’m ready for him.

And, if the great swarms of bees do materialise, I’m stocking up on antihistamines, just in case.

Five perfect family getaways in Catalonia’s green heart

Looking for a family holiday that combines adventure, nature, and a touch of culture? Catalonia’s green heart is bursting with possibilities, from mountain valleys where flaming torches light up midsummer skies to tranquil wetlands teeming with wildlife. Whether your crew prefers gentle hikes, ancient ruins or ski slopes and riverside trails, this corner of northern Spain offers unforgettable experiences for every age and season. Here are five destinations that prove The Pyrenees of Catalonia might just be Europe’s ultimate family playground.

Located also in Catalan Pyrenees west, near the border with France, Catalonia’s wonderful all-rounder really does have something for the whole family. In terms of culture, it’s a place rich with traditions and history. Kids of all ages will be entranced by the annual summer solstice Fallas festivals, which involve young men carrying flaming torches from high in the mountains down to their villages where they light bonfires and take part in traditional dances late into the night. Even the most heritage-resistant will surely be converted by Vall de Boí’s unmatched collection of astonishingly preserved Romanesque churches, with their evocative towers, atmospheric interiors, and beautiful settings. The area is blessed with trails that will suit the youngest of hikers, like the routes at Salencar de Barruera where you walk along the river following a paved path from a playground to the Salencar wetlands.

Located just west of Andorra near the border with France, the Valls d’Àneu was the first inland part of Catalonia to receive the DTF family tourism certification, and it’s easy to see why. All valleys and peaks, glacial lakes and seemingly endless meadows, it feels like an unspoilt Eden that’s waiting to be explored all year round. In winter, the Espot ski station is a family favourite, with its dedicated beginners area with magic carpets and a drag lift, and its large number of green and blue slopes. Throughout the rest of the year, families flock to one of the region’s great areas of natural splendour: Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, which features more than 200 lakes with breathtaking alpine backdrops, many of them easily accessible on flat family walkways.

A few miles inland from Cadaqués in the Mediterranean, the gorgeous seaside town famous for its postcard-perfect whitewashed architecture, lies one of Catalonia’s big draws for nature-loving families: the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Park. A 47km² wetland wonderland, its varied eco-systems are home to an astonishing range of birds and animals from bitterns and marsh harriers to otters and polecats. Parents to budding history buffs are also well-served in the area, which is home to both the Citadel of Roses – a fascinating journey through time that includes Hellenistic ruins, Visigoth-era buildings and Romanesque monasteries – and the archaeological site of Empúries with its reconstructed forum. It also benefits from being one of Catalonia’s culinary hotspots with its highly regarded seafood and excellent wines for deserving mums and dads.

Situated in the west of the Catalan Pyrenees, Pirineus, Noguera Palleresa is a stunning high peak destination that offers a vast range of family-friendly activities. In the snowy season, head to the celebrated Port Ainé ski resort, which has something to suit children of all ages from sledding play areas to treetop adventure parks. In summer, beat a path to the Alt Pirineu Natural Park which has abundant paths ideal for reluctant hikers, many of them with great views of the Pica d’Estats, which at 3143m is the highest mountain in Catalonia. Lovers of adventure sports should head to Sort on the Noguera Pallaresa river, which is the region’s top spot for whitewater rafting with gentle open kayaking for littler kids and thrilling canyoning for teenagers.

The Vall de Camprodon, located in Girona province just North of the town of Ripoll, is famous for its art nouveau architecture. One of the main draws of the Vall de Camprodon is the Ter and Freser Headwaters Natural Park, with its lush valleys and thrilling backdrop of high peaks. It’s a must-visit for aspiring bird-watchers, who if they’re lucky might see Griffon vultures, golden eagles, and Eurasian eagle-owls. Little kids will love the Camprodon Valley Tourist Train, which takes passengers on a 45 minute tour of Camprodon, allowing them to explore the valley and see incredible views of the Pont Nou without too much walking. And everyone will adore the food, particularly the local specialty biscuits, which they’ve been making since the 19th Century.

Plan your sustainable trip to the Catalan Pyrenees at visitpirineus.com/en

Blair’s ad guru criticises Stamer’s lack of plan to tackle Reform

Tony Blair’s former advertising guru has warned Keir Starmer does not have the “urgently needed” plan required to tackle the rise of populists such as Nigel Farage.

Sir Chris Powell, the brother of the prime minister’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell, called for a fundamental reset within Labour, saying there were just three years left to stop the “new and terrifying threat”.

Allowing Mr Farage’s Reform UK, which has said it plans to spend £5 million fighting May’s local elections, to be seen as credible leaders in government without sufficient challenge would make the party appear less threatening, he said, while waiting and hoping for them to fail is “potentially suicidal for our freedom and democracy”.

In a double whammy for the PM, a former senior aide has also hit out at the “weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time” as he urged Sir Keir to scrap the pension triple lock and smash what he dubbed the “stakeholder state”.

Writing for the Guardian, Sir Chris said: “Where is the urgently needed counter plan on a huge scale, to thwart and head off such an existential threat? It is simply not in place, nor does it appear to be even at the planning stage.

“We are at a very dangerous moment. We simply cannot afford to allow Reform UK to have a free run, and become established and entrenched as a credible potential government in the minds of disenchanted voters.

“The longer they go unchallenged, the more unthreatening and risk-free they will seem to voters. Just hoping that Reform UK and [Nigel] Farage implode, or that the right-wing vote will somehow fracture, is potentially suicidal for our freedom and democracy.”

The outpouring of advice to the PM comes as Sir Keir’s position is increasingly under pressure, with Labour still trailing Reform UK in the polls and widely expected to suffer heavy losses in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections in May.

He is expected to highlight measures designed to tackle the cost of living, such as recent cuts to energy costs, due to take effect in April, and the abolition of the controversial two-child benefit cap, at an event on Monday.

A Labour source said the government was “tackling the problems that populists exploit, in particular the cost of living”.

But Sir Charles, who ran the advertising agency that worked on Labour’s 1997 landslide election victory, warned that Labour’s social media engagement had so far been “small scale” in comparison to Reform and that the “narrative” surrounding the government was often more “about its own failings and internal conflicts than the battle it faces against a populist surge”.

Sir Charles, who has set up a Winning Against Populists project, said the UK was currently a “textbook case of an establishment party caught in the headlights, as its populist opponent expertly fills the vacuum of voter pain and disrespect”.

Meanwhile, Mr Ovenden warned that the case of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a “totem of the ceaseless sapping of time and energy by people obsessed with fringe issues”, with the government occupied by “flim-flam”.

Mr El-Fattah, who returned to the UK after being released from Egyptian detention in September, has been forced to apologise for comments he previously made online as far back as 2010, when he appeared to call for violence against the police and Zionists.

Yvette Cooper has ordered an urgent Foreign Office review into “serious information failures” surrounding his case amid growing calls for him to be deported after the emergence of the historic tweets.

Writing in the Times, Mr Ovenden, who left government after derogatory sexual remarks he made about Diane Abbott in 2017 were revealed, said: “Fattah’s sudden crashing into public consciousness has revealed the sheer weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time.”

He argued power had shifted away from voters towards groups with the “time, money and institutional access to make themselves too important to ignore”.

Writing in the Times, he called on the government to roll back environmental regulations, cut spending on welfare and scrap the ‘triple-lock’ on the state pension, which guarantees it will rise by at least 2 per cent a year.

He added: “We don’t have to keep picking the pockets of the productive parts of our economy in order to fund inflation-busting pension increases for millionaires or an unsustainable welfare system.”

How anti-migrant groups are hijacking women’s rights to promote agenda

Anti-immigration protesters in Britain are increasingly seizing on women’s issues in an “opportunistic” bid to make their fringe views more palatable to the general public, experts have warned.

Chants of “protect our girls” and “save our kids” now feature prominently at anti-migration marches and demonstrations, leading women’s rights groups to raise concerns over “the weaponisation” of violence against women and girls to “promote anti-migrant agendas”.

With the rise of this rhetoric has come the birth of two distinct women-led and-oriented factions within the movement over the past year – the Pink Ladies and the Women’s Safety Initiative (WSI).

These groups reject they are part of the far-right, with signs bearing slogans such as “I’m not far right, I’m worried about my kids” and “protecting women and children isn’t far right” a common sight at demonstrations.

However, experts say that these groups – whether knowingly or unknowingly – are adopting the same language now being deployed by the far-right in a bid to add a “veneer of respectability” to its ideology.

Experts say these narratives appeal specifically to women “opportunistically”, exploiting genuine fears around real issues, and make the far-right appear more “palatable”. Both mean the far-right can appeal to a broader audience and increase the acceptability of their ideas within the mainstream.

Last year marked a key development within the far-right, where women are increasingly organising more formally within the movement and becoming more visible and vocal on a street level, which are all serving as effective promotion and recruitment tools, expert say.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), which was one of more than 100 women’s rights organisations that wrote to prime minister Keir Starmer in August to raise these concerns, told The Independent: “These narratives are promoted by those who exploit genuine public concerns about sexual violence to intentionally fuel racism in our communities.

“We know that violence against women and girls is perpetrated by men of all backgrounds, and that the vast majority of rapes are perpetrated by someone known to the victim.

“In part due to its cynical co-option of violence against women and girls, we are increasingly seeing women, particularly white women, publicly involved in these groups. As society grapples with serious, longstanding failures to address male violence against women and girls, years of austerity and widening inequalities, these groups are opportunistically drawing in new supporters en masse.”

A researcher at Hope not Hate, an anti-racist and anti-fascist organisation, said rhetoric around a “foreign sexual threat” to women and girls has existed within the far-right for years, but has dominated this summer’s protests.

This narrative has been “supercharged” by issues such as grooming gangs, which critics say far-right figure Tommy Robinson uses to push his anti-migrant agenda, as well as cases of asylum seekers being arrested for sexual crimes, according to a spokesperson for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

Rallies outside asylum hotels this summer broke out following the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu, who was living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where the first demonstration happened.

The “paedophilic threat”, which is the false claim that all asylum seekers are a threat to children, also engaged many women in their roles as mothers and grandmothers in this summer’s protests, the Hope not Hate researcher said, with chants of “stop the boats” heard before “protect our kids” minutes later.

Both narratives serve to “escalate anti-migration into a public safety issue”, which is an argument that is harder to counter, the researcher said. “It also makes the far-right appear more publicly palatable,” they added: “[The men are] no longer presenting themselves as thuggish far-right members but also protectors of the community.”

Lois Shearing, author of Pink Pilled, an investigation into how women are recruited by the far-right online, said this can provide the far-right with a powerful “veneer of respectability”.

The ISD spokesperson warned: “The safety of women and girls is a key narrative being used by the far-right, which is significantly easier to promote than more extreme anti-migrant hate. As such, there is a danger that women and girls are used cynically as a wedge to promote these beliefs.

“This is often couched in wider anti-migrant discourse around crime and descriptions of mass migration as an ‘invasion’.

“The rhetoric is used to argue that as migrants (typically with the subtext of migrants from non-white or Muslim countries) as a whole are a threat to (white) women and girls, the safest action is mass deportations.”

The women-focused factions that have sprung up this year are portrayed in this “cleaner-looking” way, and they deny being far-right, said the Hope not Hate researcher, with family-oriented events, “girl power” messaging, songs and pink as the colour of choice. That all serves to appear in contrast to the violence of the far-right riots fuelled by the Southport stabbings last year, which led to mass arrests for violence, they said.

The Pink Ladies began as a trend to wear pink at marches, before figures such as Epping Forest Reform UK vice-chair Orla Minihane started organising the group during the Epping protests, according to the researcher.

The group held one of their larger stand-alone demonstrations in Chelmsford last month, a “pink protest”, with right-wing commentator Mike Graham telling the crowd: “I am saying [asylum seekers] are all f***ing rapists. Because it’s the only language they understand. We don’t want them here.”

The WSI, established earlier this year by Jess Gill, is smaller, with a more serious tone that could be described as politically focused. But the group uses similar rhetoric, holding up signs reading “mass immigration equals mass risk for women” or “secure borders means safer for women”.

The Pink Ladies and WSI are new in that they are more formal and individualised, and also in their high levels of organisation and mainstream street mobilisation, according to the Hope not Hate researcher, who warned that “with mobilisation comes recruitment”. Shearing agreed, adding that “a broader contingency of women” is being appealed to.

Although there is no data to confirm if women are now making up higher proportions of the far-right, Shearing said that because numbers are growing within the movement overall, this means there are increasingly more women involved.

They warned that among the most concerning developments they have noticed in 2025 is the creeping normalisation of extremist anti-immigrant beliefs.

“The momentum we’ve seen around hotels and marches will die down,” they said. “But I worry about how long it’s going to take us to undo how acceptable these views have become in mainstream politics.”

A spokesperson for the WSI said: “These so-called experts should be less concerned about WSI standing up for women and representing the public and more concerned about the brutal murders of Emily Jones and Rhiannon Skye White at the hands of migrants, [or] the race-based grooming of… British girls by predominantly Pakistani men.”

They added: “We are representing the stories of the thousands of women and girls across the country who have joined and spoke to WSI.”

The Independent has contacted the Pink Ladies for comment.