Jess Phillips, the UK's Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women & Girls, has shared an update with GLAMOUR about the ongoing epidemic of violence against women and girls.
“The last few weeks have been pretty tough on the women and girls in our country,” Phillips begins. “Watching shameful acts of violence has made us all feel what we often feel, which is unsafe.”
Male violence against women and girls has undoubtedly dominated the headlines for the past few weeks. On 29 July, a male suspect stabbed and killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in Southport. Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar died from their injuries. A further nine children and two adults were injured. Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old boy, has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder.
“I want to make sure that people realise that we recognise, here in government, how difficult it is and how much grief is currently being felt in the country, and say that we hear you,” Phillips continues. “And we know that we have to do everything that we can to start preventing rather than just cleaning up the violence committed by men against women and girls in our country.”
My friends and I were victim-blamed for being drunk and out late at night.
Phillips reiterates the Labour government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, adding, "We will use every lever to ensure that our criminal justice system can and does tackle the most violent offenders, but that we are also seeking to prevent it from happening in the first place.
“For too long, it has felt that a death toll of women is just something that we have got used to. That time has to end. And we will make sure that, in this government, we do everything that we possibly can to make that the case.”
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
The Labour MP is – once again – the victim of racism and misogyny.
