EVERY year, White Ribbon Day shines a light on the devastating darkness of violence against women and girls in Britain today.
But it’s not a once-a-year problem. It’s a constant blight on our society.
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It destroys lives, and risks spiralling out of control. Home Office figures show that almost 97% of sexual offences fail to end in charges.
That’s despite record reports made to police.
This government’s record is abysmal, and victims are being let down.
There are no excuses having had 12 years to address. Victims are forgiven for thinking the Tories have turned a blind eye.
But I won’t. It’s a personal mission for me.
When I was Director of Public Prosecutions, I worked intently to tackle violence against women and girls.
I worked with families like the Clough’s, who lost their daughter to domestic violence.
Jane Clough’s parents campaigned bravely and tirelessly to make sure other families didn’t have to go through what they did.
I wrote a Victims bill to provide better protections and under my leadership we helped intimidated victims tell their story.
That’s why my Labour Party will roll-out specialist rape courts, fast-track rape cases, and better support victims.
We’ll introduce a new Domestic Violence Register to identify offending patterns faster.
We’ll bring forward tougher sentences for rape, stalking and domestic murder.
We’ll put 13,000 more neighbourhood police back on our streets.
We’ll make our society safe again.
The current situation is unacceptable. It can’t go on. It’s against everything I stand for.
Labour will confront the problem with a proper plan. We’ll put victims first and make our streets safe again with a no-nonsense approach to tackling violence against women and girls once and for all.
