Labour MP Jess Phillips has described tackling violence against women and girls as her moral mission, declaring it a national emergency that demands urgent action. Writing on November 25, 2025, the Minister responsible for tackling VAWG drew from her years of direct experience supporting victims to highlight the shocking scale of the crisis.
A Harrowing National Reality
Phillips stated that the grim statistics speak for themselves. A woman is killed by a man on average every three days in the UK, with one in five homicides being domestic. She revealed that every woman she knows, including herself, has suffered at the hands of men, whether through physical violence, financial abuse, or coercive control.
For a decade since entering Parliament, Phillips has marked International Women's Day by reading the names of every woman suspected of being killed by men. She admits this is a deeply difficult task, one that often brings her to tears, but insists it is necessary to lament the loss and highlight political failure.
Groundbreaking New Protection Orders
The centrepiece of the government's new approach is the Domestic Abuse Protection Order (DAPO). Phillips hailed this as a game-changing tool that shifts the burden of protection from the victim onto the offender.
These orders, piloted last year across Greater Manchester Police, Cleveland, North Wales, and three London boroughs with the British Transport Police, offer robust, tailored restrictions. More than 1,000 orders have been issued across England and Wales since their launch, directly protecting that many victims.
Key features of DAPOs include:
- No time limits, offering protection indefinitely if needed.
- Coverage for all forms of abuse, including economic control, stalking, and so-called 'honour'-based abuse.
- Tough penalties, with breaches carrying a maximum five-year prison sentence.
A Comprehensive Strategy to Save Lives
Phillips emphasised that practical action must be backed by funding and systemic change. The government has established a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, backed by £13 million, to help policing better target these crimes.
An additional £6 million has been allocated to specialist helplines to support more victims. The Minister also pointed to the embedding of domestic abuse specialists in five police force control rooms, a reform known as 'Raneem's Law'.
This law is named in honour of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, who were murdered in August 2018 after police, alerted on 13 occasions, failed to respond in time to Raneem's final four 999 calls.
Phillips praised Metro's 'This Is Not Right' campaign for its vital role in raising awareness, alongside organisations like Women's Aid and Refuge. She concluded that ending violence against women and girls requires a whole-society response, vowing to continue her moral mission to make the country safer for all women and girls.
