Jess Phillips demands change as ‘women matter less than cars, fly tipping and statues’
Jess Phillips #JessPhillips
Jess Phillips has demanded urgent changes to the law, because in our current system “women don’t matter as much as cars”.
Labour ’s shadow domestic violence minister argued stiffer sentences were doled out to people found guilty of fly-tipping and damaging statues than to people guilty of violence and harassment against women.
Tory minister Victoria Atkins described clashes at a London vigil in memory of Sarah Everard as “upsetting” and said she takes the issue “very seriously”.
But she said she wanted to give Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dck the chance to explain what happened.
Asked whether Dame Cressida should leave her post, the Home Office minister told Sky: “I really, really want to support the Home Secretary in her request to have a report from Cressida.
“The police have got a tough job in policing the coronavirus pandemic more generally at the moment.”
She added: “I think this morning given how difficult last night was, after what has been an incredibly upsetting week, I’m very keen that we don’t pre-empt that report and we give the Met Commissioner a chance to explain what happened last night.”
Atkins said the last week was a “significant moment” and could mark a “moment of change”.
But she was criticised for holding “another survey” into the experiences of women, rather than taking action.
Ms Phillips has said there were “so many missed opportunities” by police at the south London vigil last night.
She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “Yesterday there were, oh gosh, so many missed opportunities throughout the day for police to work with organisers to create a completely safe vigil so that people could go and have a moment of sorrow and a moment of resistance against what is the experience of pretty much all women in the United Kingdom and around the world.
“They missed the opportunity at every turn until what we saw was a 5 ft 2 tall woman being pinned down with two men on her back.”
She added the police at the vigil had “undermined” the work of police officers in the West Midlands who had worked to build women’s confidence to report crimes against them.
And Ms Phillips told the Andrew Marr Programme that the forthcoming Police Bill does not mention women, but does mention statues.
And she said it allows for heavier sentences for fly-tipping than for stalking.
She said: “Yesterday I was in Birmingham City Centre getting ready to come here, and I notice there were people putting tickets on all the cars as it got dark…six or seven wardens out on the street.
And I thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice if when I was out on a Saturday night there were six or seven wardens watching out after me.
But women don’t matter as much as cars. We don’t matter as much as fly tipping. We don’t matter as much as statues. And the law needs to change that.