80 women have allegedly been killed at the hands of men since the tragic murder of Sarah Everard earlier this year. Writing exclusively in today's Northern Echo, Jess Phillips, Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, says the Government must either prioritise our lives or they risk our lives.

TO see the faces of 80 women killed since the painful loss of Sarah Everard is painful but important.

Too often we are told that these murders are very rare and we shouldn’t be alarmed, but they are not rare.

Every three days a women is killed by a man in the UK. Everyday hundreds of women come forward to tell police that they have been raped, many hundreds more women every day ring the police to say they have been a victim of domestic abuse. Each day only a handful of them will receive a charge for the crimes they have reported.

This must no longer be tolerated. On the day of the tragic killing of Sabina Nessa Her Majesties Inspectorate of police laid out unquestionably how violence against women and girls is an epidemic that is not being addressed with the urgency and seriousness it so desperately needs.

The report stated that this violence is a societal problem that is ‘known, consistent and deep-rooted in its presence, and growing in the forms it takes’ yet that there are structural, strategic and tactical inconsistencies at every level in how the police respond to it.

The report made clear that the police can’t address this societal problem alone. It cried out for an uplift in prioritisation and a ‘whole-system’ alongside the resources and funding that would allow all agencies to work effectively.

It called for the whole criminal justice system – the CPS, courts, police - to work with healthcare, housing and education departments to protect and support women. The report told the government unflinchingly that there can’t be anything less than sweeping and ‘fundamental’ changes across the board. As stark and as urgent as this sounds, it sadly does not surprise me at all. A crisis this big, demands a response of the same scale.

The government have so far responded by saying that they are looking at the recommendations of the report, they have for some unknown and baffling reason refused to commit to the work that it demands.

The Government are also refusing to categorise violence against women and girls as “Serious violence” as they do with youth violence and county lines gangs or terrorism. In the wake of the verdict of Sarah Everards killer Government ministers said that it is up to local areas if they want to prioritise the rape, stalking, beating and controlling of women as “serious violence.”

This is an insult to every one of the women who yesterday and today were told that there would be no further action taken against their rapist or stalker. It will be the same tomorrow, it was the same when Kent Police decided to take no further action against Wayne Couzens when he was accused of indecent exposure. No further action is no longer acceptable, it never was but surely now we have got to deserve better.

I have been listening to the Governments telling me that lessons will be learned, that they will ensure people work together and that they have new strategies for over a decade.

I will not tolerate it as an answer anymore. They either prioritise our lives or they risk our lives.

Enough is enough. Those 80 women deserved better.

  • Jess Phillips is the Labour MP for Birmingham, Yardley, and has been in Parliament since 2015. She is Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding