Men make sacrifices many women don't for top jobs, Farage says

Men are prepared to sacrifice family lives for successful careers in a way many women aren't, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said.

Speaking at an event in Parliament, Farage argued people should be judged on merit in the workplace, not on certain characteristics.

When asked whether most top jobs would go to white men on merit, Farage said that, in many cases, women make "very different life choices" to men.

"Look at business," he said. "Men are prepared to sacrifice their family lives in order to pursue a career and be successful in a way that fewer women are.

"And those women that do have probably got more of a chance of reaching the top than the blokes."

His comments came at a lunch with journalists on Wednesday, with Farage making a speech and taking questions on a range of topical issues.

As Reform UK leader, Farage sets the direction for the party of more than 200,000 members and four members of Parliament.

Farage praised US President Donald Trump's drive to scrap diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies, designed to prevent discrimination in the workplace.

DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.

Their backers say they address historical or ongoing discrimination and underrepresentation of certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics argue such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.

Asked why the world of business had been dominated by white men in the past, Farage said: "Because the country was white men, the country of business was white men.

He added: "Men went to work, women stayed at home and brought up kids. The world has evolved and changed since then.

"The world is changing. The world is changing. Women in work. Changes in population.

"But the idea that you give certain groups privileges not based on merit but based on skin colour or sexuality or whatever is wrong, it doesn't work."

Farage leads a group of four male MPs in the House of Commons, but said he was very "pro-women".

This week, the party announced its candidate for the upcoming Runcorn and Helsby by-election as former Cheshire East councillor and local magistrate Sarah Pochin.

Farage said: "Have we picked her because she's a woman? No. We picked her because the best candidate."

He said Reform UK could "do with more female figures", but added "we'll get them through merit".

Opinion polls consistently suggest Reform UK is more popular among men than women.

A YouGov poll in January indicated 30% of men and 19% of women would vote for the party in a hypothetical general election.

Farage faced a question about what he planned to do to appeal to female voters.

He said young men were "more attracted to small-c conservatism" and suggested they backed his party because they were more "impulsive" than women.

"That has nothing to do with me whatsoever, that's just the way it is," he said.

Farage said society was trying to "feminise" young men in a way that made the views of self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate more appealing to them.

But Farage stressed: "I'm not a Tate supporter. I'm identifying the truth, that young men feel that they're not allowed to be blokes."

Farage's relationship with tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk also came up during the event.

Musk had been a vocal supporter of Reform and last year, Farage told journalists his party was in negotiations with the Tesla CEO about a potential donation.

But there was a rift between them over Musk's support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

Farage said when he met Musk in the US, the billionaire took "a different view on Tommy Robinson to me".

The Reform UK leader said he'd never supported Robinson and Musk "tried to push me a bit".

"You know what, you can't bully me," Farage said. "I've got principles and I stand by them."