My message to abusers and rapists: The streets don’t belong to you

It is time we treated these appalling crimes as the national emergency that they are (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Almost 50 years ago, women took to the streets in Leeds and other cities. 

The cause uniting them as they gathered and marched was a simple one: Safety. At a time when women had been told to stay at home because of a wave of brutal attacks on women in Yorkshire, they decided instead to demand the streets were kept safe. 

Safety from violence and abuse, and freedom from fear were at the heart of their campaign. 

Safety for them, for their sisters, for their mothers and for their daughters. 

This was a hugely significant and symbolic moment – and it should have been a turning point. 

When our mothers and grandmothers supported the campaigners in Leeds half a century ago, they could not have imagined that progress would be so painfully slow (Picture: Duke University Archives)

But the truth is that, while we are a different society from the one those trailblazers so bravely challenged in 1977, far too little has changed. 

When the actress Saoirse Ronan pointed out on The Graham Norton Show that women and girls have to think all the time about whether they are safe on the streets, the clip went viral.

Because that is the experience for so many women across the country – carrying keys in your hand, pretending to be on the phone, having to work out if there is a safe route after dark. 

Across the country, people will have been truly shocked by the appalling murder of Harshita Brella – a young woman who should have had her whole life ahead of her.  

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, one in four women have experienced domestic abuse, one in four have suffered sexual assault, one in five have been stalked. 

Those crimes aren’t just statistics, they are terrible stories of trauma, pain, fear and harm both physical and psychological.  

It is time we treated these appalling crimes as the national emergency that they are.  

Across the country, people will have been truly shocked by the appalling murder of Harshita Brella (Picture: Northamptonshire Police / SWNS)

Our newly elected Labour Government has set an unprecedented mission – not just for the police or the Home Office, but for the whole of the Government and the whole of society – to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. 

No government has sought to do this before and we recognise the scale of the challenge. But this is part of our mission for safer streets and it is too important to ignore. 

That has to start with much stronger action from policing and the criminal justice system.  

On the night Raneem Oudeh and her mother were killed, she had called 999 four times but no one came. Even though she had reported her ex to the police many times and taken out an injunction because the threats and abuse were so serious.

No women should ever be let down by the police and criminal justice system in that way. 

Raneem Oudeh was 22 when she was murdered by her ex-husband (Picture: PA)

That is why the Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Minister Jess Phillips and I have made it a personal priority to bring in Raneem’s Law – something that Raneem’s aunt Nour Norris and other families have been campaigning for.  

From early next year, we will begin the introduction of domestic abuse specialists into the first 999 control rooms, so that when the desperate calls come in from victims who are experiencing abuse, the police know immediately how serious it is. 

We are also rolling out new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders that the police, victims and other organisations will all be able to apply for to strengthen the immediate protection against perpetrators. The new orders can include things like electronic tagging or behaviour change programmes. 

And we are drawing up new plans with senior police officers for higher standards and better training in tackling domestic abuse and sexual assaults, including specialist rape investigation teams in every police force, alongside specialist legal advisors to support victims of adult rape.

But all of us know that tackling violence involves far more than the police or criminal justice system. Preventing abuse in the first place is crucial, and everyone needs to play their part.

Across Government and with Mayors, local councils and Police and Crime Commissioners we are supporting stronger prevention action. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is drawing up stronger plans for prevention education in schools, Transport Secretary Lou Haigh is working with British Transport Police on safer public transport, and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is strengthening the law on online intimate image abuse.  

And it is not just about what Government should do. Tackling violence against women and girls is for everyone. That is why initiatives such as Metro’s This Is Not Right campaign are so important and powerful.  

The Sarah Everard protests (Picture: Daniel LEAL / AFP)

When our mothers and grandmothers supported the campaigners in Leeds half a century ago, they could not have imagined that progress would be so painfully slow.

We owe it to them and more importantly to our daughters and granddaughters to tackle this violence and abuse today. This isn’t a choice, it is a moral imperative. 

It is time to declare with one voice that our streets will never belong to stalkers, abusers and rapists.  

It is time to back up words with action. So our streets, our communities and our homes are safer for all.