Three women a fortnight are killed by a partner or ex-partner. 

Nearly one in five crimes recorded by the police are domestic abuse related.

The economic and social costs of domestic abuse in England were just under £78 billion in 2022. 

These three facts from Women’s Aid’s 2024 general election manifesto underline why ending violence against women and girls must be a priority for us all.

Behind those facts are individual stories – of pain, of heartbreak, of women failed. In the House of Commons, to mark International Women’s Day, Labour MP Jess Phillips read out the names of more than 100 women killed in the last year alone because of male violence.

As she said, over half of the women on that list could have been saved by earlier actions or interventions. 

March 8 marked International Women’s Day – an opportunity to reflect on progress and challenges for women. Violence against women and girls must be a continued focus all year round.

Around one in five crimes reported to Norfolk Constabulary are domestic abuse related. Many more cases go unreported, with women afraid to report or lacking confidence in the criminal justice system.

And, while there may have been an increased focus on violence against women and girls in the media and in politics, things are not changing fast enough. 

There must be a sustained political commitment to ending this scourge. Labour has pledged to halve the levels of violence against women and girls within a decade. This won’t be easy, and it will take all of us working together, but we cannot give up. 

As we approach the Norfolk police and crime commissioner elections, Labour’s candidate, Sarah Taylor, has already vowed to make tackling violence against women and girls a top priority. 

We know every commitment needs a proper plan. 

Labour has set out what we will do. Our plan includes putting specialists into the court system including specialist support for rape and domestic abuse victims, and establishing specialist rape courts to end the unacceptable waits some victims face before justice.

We would also give domestic abusers no place to hide by introducing a new Domestic Abuse Register to track offenders and help protect victims.

We must also tackle misogyny as the root cause of violence against women and girls. That includes ending the promotion and hosting of harmful content online and making tackling misogyny a key part of school accountability. Recently, Labour’s shadow education secretary announced that we would help schools to develop young male mentors and teach young people how to combat misogyny online. 

Women must be able to trust that the criminal justice system will work for them. 

This month marks three years since Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving police officer. As the Angiolini report showed there were severe police failings. Sarah’s murderer should never have been allowed to become a police officer.  

The system must change. Labour has called on the Conservative Government to adopt our plans for mandatory national vetting standards to stop anybody with a history of domestic abuse or sexual offending being allowed to join the police.  

Labour would also introduce automatic suspensions for officers being investigated for rape, domestic abuse and other sexual offences, mandated training on violence against women and girls for all officers, and the roll out of specialist Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) units in every police force. 

There are many laudable initiatives in Norfolk including NIDAS - the Norfolk Integrated Domestic Abuse Service.  And, there are many excellent local organisations too that are working to domestic violence and abuse. I have visited some, including Leeway and Dawn’s New Horizon – a Sprowston based charity – of which I recently became a trustee.

They have told me the need is incredibly high. But, as the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls  recently noted grassroots organisations and specialised frontline service providers  “are struggling to survive in an increasingly challenging context of rising living costs, a deepening housing crisis and a critical lack of funding”.

If we are really serious about tackling violence against women and girls in this country, we must take action to prevent violence against women and girls from the start - a sticking plaster over the issue has failed women and girls time and again.

New approaches, that really tackle misogyny at its root, must be built into every level of society - from the school playground to the street, and from police training and vetting to the highest courts of law, to name just two examples. 

If elected in Norwich North, tackling violence against women and girls will be a top priority for me. I will work with local organisations, the police, schools and other partners and with other political parties to make sure we are doing all we can to consign it to history. 

Instead of listing women killed in this country, I look forward to the day that Jess Phillips has no names to read and can instead list the ways that all of us - girls, boys, men and women - came together to end the violence. 
 

Alice Macdonald is Labour and Cooperative Party candidate for Norwich North