{"id":684274,"date":"2026-07-10T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684274\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:32:08","slug":"greater-manchester-candidate-says-non-reform-voters-should-house-migrant-rapists-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684274\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester candidate says non-Reform voters should house \u2018migrant rapists\u2019 | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reform UK candidate in the Greater Manchester<\/a> mayoral race has been criticised by her rivals after doubling down on comments that voters for other parties should have to house criminals and rapists.<\/p>\n

Sian Astley, a property businesswoman, initially made the comments in a Facebook post in which she shared her party\u2019s pledge that a Reform government would prioritise placing migrant detention centres in areas where the Green party had an MP or controlled the local council.<\/p>\n

Under the policy, announced in May by the party\u2019s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, no such facilities would be placed in areas with a Reform-controlled council or MP.<\/p>\n

As well as sharing the policy, she posted: \u201cHow very democratic a policy. You get what you vote for.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally I\u2019d just ensure the Green voters, uniparty MPs (present or past) and Cllrs house the illegal criminals, rapists and economic chancers, so it\u2019s nice of Reform UK<\/a> to offer to build accommodation instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Labour party chair, Anna Turley, criticised Astley, saying Reform\u2019s \u201cgrotesque policy\u201d revealed the party\u2019s contempt for all voters, including their own.<\/p>\n

Turley said: \u201cBy backing this proposal, Reform\u2019s candidate has shown she shares Nigel Farage\u2019s view that communities should be rewarded or punished based on how they vote. Threatening to punish places where people don\u2019t vote your way is a betrayal of basic democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than backing down, Astley this week told the Manchester Evening News that she stood by her comments<\/a>, insisting that those who advocated open borders were opening up the country to \u201cexactly that \u2013 criminals, economic chancers, rapists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Astley said: \u201cSo, I\u2019m sorry, but if people are attacking me for being angry about that, and for suggesting that \u2013 a little bit of tongue in cheek \u2018well if you voted for it why don\u2019t you have it?\u2019 \u2013 comment, then really they\u2019re getting angry about the wrong thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s candidate, Bev Craig, is the favourite to win the mayoral byelection on 30 July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The contest was triggered after Andy Burnham won the parliamentary byelection in Makerfield and is expected to become the leader of the Labour party and prime minister this summer.<\/p>\n

Astley, who is the leader of the Reform group on Manchester<\/a> city council, was regarded as a strong choice by the party when she was unveiled as the candidate last month. She featured on BBC One\u2019s DIY SOS and the BBC Two series Your Home Made Perfect before entering politics.<\/p>\n

Reform\u2019s candidate in the Makerfield byelection, Robert Kenyon, struggled to shrug off accusations of misogyny over past comments he had made using sexually explicit language and comments about women who have abortions.<\/p>\n

However, Astley\u2019s opponents believe her comments about immigration and voters could cost her in Greater Manchester, a diverse area where more than 2 million people will be eligible to vote in what will be Britain\u2019s biggest byelection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reform UK candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral race has been criticised by her rivals after doubling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-684274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}