Reform UK says child rapists would face whole-life jail terms if elected | Reform UK
Child rapists will be jailed for life if Reform UK wins the next election, Reform UK’s head of policy has said.
Under plans unveiled by Zia Yusuf on Saturday, the party will introduce mandatory life sentences for criminals convicted of the crime, depriving them of parole, as part of a crackdown on gangs.
The reform said its aim was to establish “mandatory minimums to apply to historical child sexual abuse to ensure that heinous historical crimes are also punished proportionately”.
According to Ministry of Justice data, 677 convictions were given for rape of children under the age of 16 in 2024. These figures relate to the number of convictions rather than the number of people convicted.
Under current rules, child rapists can be sentenced to life imprisonment at the judge’s discretion; The sentencing range for crimes against children under 13 is six to 19 years.
Reform said the policy was “incorporated” into plans to free up prison capacity by deporting foreign criminals to their countries of origin and building “Nightingale prisons”.
Youssef said: “For too long Conservative and Labor governments have failed to protect our children.
“The reform government will introduce a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment for child rapists. It is a shame that this has not already become law.
“It is a stain on our national conscience that grooming gangs have been allowed to operate untouched for years, and in many cases still do. Under Conservative governments, the average sentence for rape of a child under 13 has fallen to nine years.
“Some gang child rapists received sentences as low as four years. Under Labor, violent criminals are now released early from prison.”
Full life sentences differ from standard life sentences, in which a minimum term is served before parole, and are imposed in cases where the crime is deemed so serious that the offender will never be released from prison.
According to the Sentencing Council, there were 70 life sentences as of March 2025; These include child serial killer Lucy Letby in 2023, Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens in 2021, and Ali Harbi Ali, who killed MP Sir David Amess in Southend in 2021.
