Help stop women being abused and killed, campaigners tell Hunt and Johnson

‘Violence against women and girls deserves political attention and leadership because of the damage it does to thousands of women’s and girls’ lives and all those who love them’

Tackling gender-based violence ‘could fall by the wayside’ if next PM does make make sure efforts are continued (AFP/Getty)

Women’s groups have urged Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to make concrete promises to tackle domestic and sexual violence if they become the next prime minister.

Some 30 groups who support female survivors of violence have written to the two Conservative Party leadership candidates in an attempt to make them commit to addressing the issue. Every week in the UK, two women are murdered by a partner or ex-partner.

The letter, coordinated by the End Violence Against Women coalition, notes new laws are already in the pipeline to address gender-based violence, but warns they will fall by the wayside if the next prime minister fails to back them.

“We are living in an era of enormous changes in public recognition of and attitudes towards gender-based violence,” the letter reads. “Reporting to the police, and help-seeking from local support services, are at their highest ever levels and the #MeToo movement has exposed the huge scale of sexual harassment and violence.”

It adds: “We want to ask you as a candidate for prime minister to commit to maintaining and building on this work. The Home Office-led Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy is a critical framework, encouraging all government departments to play their part in ending abuse so that it is never again seen as purely a policing matter.”

“Violence against women and girls deserves political attention and leadership because of the damage it does to thousands of women’s and girls’ lives and all those who love them.”

The letter calls for the new PM to ensure the draft domestic abuse bill – which introduces the first ever statutory government definition of domestic abuse to include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative abuse that is not physical – becomes law and is delivered. The controversial bill has come under fire for failing to offer protection for migrant women and for women in Northern Ireland.

The letter comes after the Conservative rivals for No 10 faced criticism for refusing to consider changing laws in Northern Ireland, where abortions are banned in almost all cases – even rape or incest – and same-sex marriage is illegal.

They both insisted only the Northern Ireland assembly – which has been suspended for two and a half years – should consider lifting the bans.

The two candidates were criticised for “choosing politics over the lives of women” by the founder of the London-based charity Abortion Support Network.

Mr Johnson was accused of sexism by the Commons speaker after calling shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry by her husband’s name to ridicule her last year.

Mr Hunt was recently criticised by campaigners for taking a “cavalier approach” to women’s needs after saying he believes the time limit for having an abortion should be halved from 24 weeks to 12.

The letter comes after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) faced fierce criticism last month for an alarming drop in prosecutions for rape – with campaigners saying prosecutors are failing rape victims “at every stage” after new figures revealed the time taken to charge suspects has more than doubled in the past seven years.

Women’s organisations are threatening to take the CPS to court over claims sexual offences cases are being “dropped” without good reason. A UK-wide coalition of activist groups, represented by the Centre for Women’s Justice, said the CPS has covertly changed its policy and practice in relation to decision-making on rape cases, leading to a major fall in the number of such cases resulting in a criminal charge.

Government figures show there was a 23 per cent drop in the number of rape cases taken on by the CPS in the 12 months to 2017-18, despite a 16 per cent increase in police-recorded rape over the same period.