A REFORM UK MP has been slammed for urging England to “keep winning” as she claimed football losses hiked rates of domestic violence.
In a bizarre social media clip, the Runcorn MP said “thank goodness” England won their game on Wednesday night against Croatia because domestic violence went “through the roof” when they lose.
In the 13-second Twitter/X video, posted with the caption “for the sake of women’s safety we need England to keep winning”, Pochin said: “England won the football last night and thank goodness they did because on the occasions that England lose their football matches, the incidences of domestic violence go through the roof. So, boys, keep winning.”
Her comments were condemned across the board, with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson saying: “Men should not beat up women. Full stop. No excuses.”
For the sake of women’s safety we need England to keep winning 🏴 pic.twitter.com/Art8B5gzaf
— Sarah Pochin MP (@SarahForRuncorn) June 18, 2026
The Trades Union Congress shared the clip, adding: “Reform’s domestic violence strategy is to cross fingers England win. How on earth is this a party serious about women's safety?”
LibDem MP Josh Babarinde said: “As someone who grew up in a home where domestic abuse was regrettably part of home life for years, I do not know where to start in responding to this appalling video.
“For the sake of women’s safety, we need politicians to stop spouting outrageous garbage like this.”
Labour’s Stella Creasy said: “Domestic abuse rises whether England loses or wins at football.
“Tackling that shouldn’t depend on the score line but the seriousness with which we take violence against women and ending the culture of misogyny that enables it.
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“With views like this Reform continue to show they are part of the problem not the solution.”
Tory MP Mims Davies called the clip “staggeringly misjudged”, adding: “Domestic violence is criminality in the home and should always be treated that way.
“No excuses, ever. If the Reform approach to the protection of women is to hope football games go the right way.
“Then they don’t understand the evidence and crucially this is simply not a strategy for protecting women and girls.”
Addressing the backlash in an interview with the BBC on Thursday night, Pochin, a former justice of the peace, said it was “a fact that the police call out rates absolutely spiral on big national occasions when there might be disappointment, and clearly England losing a football match is one of those occasions”.
She added: “My job is to always to speak up for the safety of women and when you have worked and sat in front of women who are terrified of their perpetrators then it is worth raising this issue – for no other reason that if people are aware of it and aware of the spike on football night events, then maybe friends will look out for these people.
"Maybe neighbours, family members who know this is going on will invite the women to come stay with them for the evening, whatever it takes. We need to keep women safe."
A 2021 study re-examined previous research on the issue and found that England wins were linked with higher rates of domestic violence reports to the police than England losses .
Researchers at Warwick University said they had “shown that the experience of a national success in an international football tournament substantially increases the likelihood of alcohol-related violent behaviours manifesting in domestic (and other) settings”.
Pochin has previously been criticised for comments she made about how it “ drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people ”.
Her comments in a Talk TV appearance in October were branded “racist” by then-health secretary Wes Streeting, while Justice Secretary David Lammy demanded she be kicked out of Reform for her “mean, nasty and racist” remarks.
Facts Only
* Sarah Pochin MP posted a claim on social media stating England should "keep winning" football matches because losses hike rates of domestic violence.
* Pochin stated this due to the observation that domestic violence incidences go "through the roof" when England loses football matches.
* Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated that men should not beat up women and called for no excuses regarding violence against women.
* The Trades Union Congress criticized the Reform strategy, suggesting it relies on England winning football games.
* LibDem MP Josh Babarinde expressed distress over the video, stating politicians should not spout such comments regarding women's safety.
* Labour MP Stella Creasy argued that domestic abuse rises whether England wins or loses football matches.
* Tory MP Mims Davies called the approach "staggeringly misjudged," asserting violence in the home is criminality and independent of football outcomes.
* Pochin later stated that police rates spiral during national disappointments, including losing football matches.
* A 2021 study found that England wins were linked with higher rates of domestic violence reports to the police than losses.
* Warwick University researchers showed that national success in international football tournaments substantially increases the likelihood of alcohol-related violent behaviors manifesting in domestic settings.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative presented links a seemingly benign cultural event (football scores) to severe social pathology (domestic violence), creating an appeal based on fear and deflection. This functions as emotional exploitation by framing complex societal issues as simple cause-and-effect, which is then weaponized for political ends. The pattern of manipulation relies on establishing a false equivalence: if the outcome is negative (a loss), the consequence (violence) increases; therefore, the solution must be to control the football outcome.
The backlash demonstrated an immediate resistance to this form of deflection by established politicians and commentators who insisted that domestic abuse is a systemic issue rooted in misogyny and structural inequality, not transient sporting results. This opposition highlights a tension between individual experiences or specific contextual correlations (as raised by Pochin) and broader societal understandings of violence as a fixed criminal reality.
The use of statistical findings—like the Warwick University research—is then selectively deployed to support the core argument, bypassing necessary ethical scrutiny regarding correlation versus causation. The subsequent attacks against Pochin focused on her perceived ideology and personal history rather than engaging with the factual complexity she introduced. This mirrors a common pattern where specific, controversial assertions are used not to advance policy, but to provoke moral panic and shift accountability away from systemic issues toward individual failures or cultural alignment.
The implications suggest that attempts to address deep-seated problems like domestic violence are vulnerable to being co-opted by populist rhetoric if those narratives offer simple, immediate behavioral prescriptions. This pattern reinforces the need for analytical vigilance: recognizing when data is used to create moral urgency rather than true understanding of root causes and agency.
Sentinel — Human
The text exhibits the complexity, voice variation, and specific sourcing characteristic of human journalistic reporting rather than generalized synthetic content.