Sarah Pochin - MP for Runcorn and Helsby | Reform Watch
Profile and accountability tracker for Sarah Pochin, MP for Runcorn and Helsby. Reform UK.
Role: MP for Runcorn and Helsby
Party: Reform UK
Recorded incidents (showing 11-18 of 18)
Sarah Pochin criticised for remarks about Black and Asian people in adverts
Category: racism
On 25 October 2025 Sarah Pochin, the Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, told a TalkTV phone-in that adverts 'full of black people, full of Asian people' 'drive me mad' and said such adverts 'don’t reflect our society'. The remarks were broadcast and drew immediate public criticism. Pochin apologised on 26 October on social media, saying her comments were 'phrased poorly' and not intended to offend while reiterating a critique of the advertising industry's 'DEI' practices. Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the remarks as 'shocking racism' and Labour chair Anna Turley demanded Nigel Farage withdraw the party whip; Farage said he was 'unhappy' and called the wording 'ugly' but declined to label the comments racist or to take further disciplinary action, and the Liberal Democrats tabled a censure motion in Parliament.
Pochin corrected live on air after claiming Afghan and Eritrean asylum seekers have "a particular problem" with sexual violence
Category: xenophobia
Location: BBC Politics Live
On BBC Politics Live on 21 July 2025, Sarah Pochin said it was "a fact that this particular element, particularly Afghan, particularly Eritrean asylum seekers, have a particular problem with sexual assaults and sexual violence against women". She repeated that they were "far higher to offend" and told a fellow guest: "It's people like you in denial that's putting women like me at risk." Presenter Vicki Young corrected her on air, citing 129 such offences over three years out of 16,771 convictions where nationality was known. Pochin had also repeated unsourced claims that Afghans brought to the UK after a Ministry of Defence data leak were convicted sex offenders, which the Defence Secretary denied.
Sources: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/reform-uk-mp-given-brutal-reality-check-by-bbc-journalist-after-on-air-bust-up_uk_687e44d1e4b0502d85e59888 https://leftfootforward.org/2025/07/reform-mps-outrageous-claim-about-afghan-and-eritrean-asylum-seekers-fact-checked-on-air/
Residents rejected Pochin's claims that immigrants had blighted a Runcorn street
Category: inflammatory language
Location: Greenway Road, Runcorn
In a Facebook video posted in July 2025, Sarah Pochin said she had received "disturbing reports" of violence, anti-social behaviour, rubbish strewn around the streets and "potential domestic abuse" on Greenway Road in Runcorn, which she linked to houses in multiple occupation used to house immigrants. Residents said the portrayal was untrue and asked to meet her, and Cheshire Constabulary said it had received no such reports. Church warden Robert Littler accused her of pursuing a "personal agenda" and of "scaremongering and hate-stirring". She dismissed the residents' open letter as "falsehoods, personal attacks, and political smears" and refused to apologise.
Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98w0dj0x8ko https://www.hellorayo.co.uk/hits-radio/liverpool/news/residents-runcorn-road-meeting-mps-claims-crime
Pochin told Muslim women who wear the burqa to "go back to where it is acceptable"
Category: xenophobia
Location: United Kingdom
In an interview with The Times published on 11 July 2025, Sarah Pochin said of the burqa: "Well, they are an offensive and misogynistic item of clothing, aren't they?" She added: "A burqa is not our culture and if you want to wear it, go back to where it is acceptable." In the same interview she said illegal immigrants "must be sent back home" while discussing sexual violence against women. Telling British Muslim women to leave the country over their clothing is a straightforward statement that they do not belong here. It came weeks after her own party chairman had said her burqa ban question was not Reform policy.
Sources: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/sarah-pochin-reform-mp-interview-nigel-farage-2vtsddb8l https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/sarah-pochin-doesnt-care-racist-rachel-johnson-reform-rpXy5_2/
Foreign Secretary told Pochin to "get some help" after she repeated a Chagos conspiracy theory in the Commons
Category: factual inaccuracy
Location: House of Commons
On 23 June 2025, during a Commons statement on the Middle East, Sarah Pochin asked Foreign Secretary David Lammy whether the United States felt unable to use the Diego Garcia base for strikes on Iran because of the Chagos Islands agreement with Mauritius, which she suggested would tip off China and then Iran. Lammy told her to "get off social media" and to "get some help because she's swallowing conspiracy theories which should not be repeated in this House". Ministers confirmed the United States had not asked to use the base. A serving MP had brought an unfounded online theory into a debate on military action.
Sources: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/david-lammy-liberal-democrat-stephen-doughty-reform-middle-east-b2775378.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/david-lammy-liberal-democrat-foreign-secretary-stephen-doughty-reform-b1234478.html https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/get-some-help-david-lammy-mocks-reform-mp-for-repeating-conspiracy-theory-in-commons_uk_68598626e4b0eb84d4e0e5b0
Pochin used her first PMQs to call for a ban on the burqa
Category: discriminatory remark
Location: House of Commons
At her first Prime Minister's Questions on 4 June 2025, Sarah Pochin asked Keir Starmer whether he would "in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa". The question singled out the dress of Muslim women and was not linked to any specific security incident. Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf publicly described the question as "dumb" and said a burqa ban was not party policy, before briefly resigning from the role. The episode showed a Reform MP using the despatch box to target a religious minority, with her own party chairman unable to defend it.
Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cql2pzr5qlqo https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-farage-pochin-yusuf-burqa-ban-b2764158.html
Pochin used maiden speech to claim 900 illegal immigrants live in Runcorn
Category: factual inaccuracy
Location: House of Commons
In her maiden speech on 12 May 2025, during the Commons debate on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, Sarah Pochin told MPs there were "over 900 illegal immigrants, that we know about, living in Runcorn". She opened by joking that colleagues had dragged themselves out of the pub to hear her. No source was given for the figure, and no published Home Office or Halton Borough Council data supports it. The claim set the tone for her subsequent record in Parliament, in which immigration figures have repeatedly been asserted without evidence.
Sources: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2025-05-12e.117.1 https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/sarah-pochin/debate/2025-05-12/commons/commons-chamber/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill https://www.runcornandwidnesworld.co.uk/news/25157910.everything-runcorn-mp-sarah-pochin-said-first-commons-speech/
Pochin branded Parliamentary Standards Commissioner a 'kangaroo court'
Category: scandal
Sarah Pochin, Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, described the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards as a "kangaroo court" while her party leader Nigel Farage was under active investigation over allegedly undeclared gifts and hospitality. The remarks, made in July 2026, targeted the independent statutory body that enforces the Code of Conduct and the Register of Members' Financial Interests. The comments drew immediate criticism because the Commissioner's office is the very mechanism through which MPs are held to account for their financial declarations. It is not the first time senior Reform UK figures have publicly disparaged parliamentary standards processes when their own members are under scrutiny, and the attack was widely read as an attempt to delegitimise the regulator mid-inquiry.