International Women�s Day
Steve Witherden Excerpts(1 day, 2 hours ago)
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Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered International Women�s Day.
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate and draw the House�s attention to my entry in the Register of Members� Financial Interests. I am an ambassador for Ask for Angela, a great scheme whereby someone feeling unsafe in a club can go to the bar and talk to somebody, and they will help in any way they can. I am also an ambassador for fair pay with the global fair pay charter, which aims to improve the living conditions and pay for more than 25 million tea plantation workers worldwide, many of whom are women. As we know, financial independence is a route out of an abusive relationship.
I congratulate this Parliament on being the most diverse Parliament, with 41% female Members. We all know our number, Madam Deputy Speaker: I was the 286th woman to be elected to this House, and the first elected black female Minister in the UK, under Gordon Brown�s Government. As shadow Minister, I was instrumental in getting the International Women�s Day flag flown over the House and in getting the first IWD debate on the Floor of the House. I remember asking the Speaker at the time whether my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), who is now the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, could read out the names of the women who had been killed by men to start the debate�just that, without a speech. I think it still took about seven or eight minutes. Ten years later, that list is still just as long; it still takes that amount of time. How can that be? How can it be that a woman is still killed every three days by a partner or former partner? There are still women who are not counted, such as women who commit suicide because of domestic abuse and trans women and girls.
I have been thinking about this a lot. I have been told that heterosexual or straight white men and boys feel that there is no longer a place for them in society, and that is why they are turning to the far right. That really saddens me, because there is a place for everyone in society. There is, of course, a place for straight white men and boys; there is a very important role for them to play in society. We will hear a lot today about the fact that one woman is killed every three days, and that 97% of them are killed by men, the majority of whom are white. If we want to protect women, we need to reach out to men�the ones who are informed, kind and loving�and we need to say, �We need you now, more than ever before.� Right now, there are some serious, toxic, misogynistic men�some of whom are straight�and they are harming women, society, gay people and black people. This is the very foundation on which we live. We need to say no.
Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glynd?r) (Lab)
In the UK, a woman is murdered by a current or former partner every week. According to research from Women�s Aid, 46% of women have faced some form of abuse in an intimate relationship during their lifetime. Given these harrowing statistics, we must confront domestic abuse for what it truly is: a national emergency. Does she agree that lifesaving specialist domestic abuse services, which have been chronically underfunded, must receive the investment that they so desperately need?
Dawn Butler
My hon. Friend hits on an important point. We absolutely need that investment. If we are serious about saving lives, we need to do whatever it takes. If we want to see a reduction in the number of women being killed, we need to invest in making that happen.
We also need to have those uncomfortable conversations. It is not tough to hit women, as is spouted by Andrew Tate, or to rape women, or to ridicule women or girls because they have said no. We have to have those conversations. We have to say, �This is wrong.� We have to talk to all the men feeling like that. I am wearing a male shirt and tie today, but it does not mean that the world is going to run out of male shirts and ties. There is enough to go around for everybody, and we have to have that conversation.
We have to show men loving women. We have to educate boys and girls. It is interesting that some fathers treat their daughters like princesses, and think that by treating them that way, their daughter will learn how to be treated, but the reality is that they will learn by how their father treats his partner.
Oral Answers to Questions
Steve Witherden Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)
Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)
This Government will treat violence against women and girls as the national emergency that it is, and later this year our new comprehensive violence against women and girls strategy will spell out how we plan to fulfil our unprecedented commitment to halve that violence. In the interim, we have announced Raneem’s law, whereby domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms, and we are working with police to develop a national framework to track and target high-harm offenders. We are piloting new domestic abuse protection orders in selected areas, and we have outlined new measures to protect women against stalking and spiking.
Jess Phillips
The strategy to halve violence against women and girls is for every single part of our country. The Government recognise that victims in rural and remote areas face particular barriers in fleeing abuse and accessing support. We are already driving forward a range of activities that will support rural victims. The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 will require local commissioners to develop joint needs assessments for victims of domestic abuse, to identify gaps in support. I encourage all Members to engage with that process when it comes to their local area, and I will happily work with rural MPs in this House to make sure that that is the case.
Steve Witherden
Palestinian women detained in Israeli prisons face sexual assault, beatings and threats of rape and death, according to United Nations reports. Given our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls, what discussions is the Minister having with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office colleagues about the implications of the gender-based violence faced by Palestinians, particularly as Israel continues to deny access to detention sites?
Jess Phillips
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. My FCDO colleagues sit on the violence against women and girls sub-group for the mission, and I have every faith that they take the issues that he talks about incredibly seriously. We have to protect women the world over.
Violence against Women and Girls
Steve Witherden Excerpts(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) for securing this crucial debate and for her exceptional dedication to tackling violence against women and girls.
UN Women’s latest femicides report reveals that globally the home is now the most dangerous place for a woman to be. For far too long, domestic homicide has been treated as an unavoidable tragedy. In the UK a woman is murdered by a man every three days; 62% of those women are killed by their partner or ex-partner, often in brutal and unimaginable ways, and many of them in front of their children. Given those harrowing statistics, the Government must confront domestic homicide for what it truly is: a national emergency. I fully support our ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Education must play a vital role in achieving that and raising awareness of domestic violence in schools is crucial.
For decades, road and fire safety has been taught in schools, yet the harsh reality is that women are 50 times more likely to be injured by their partner than in a house fire, and more than three times as likely to be killed by a partner as by not wearing a seatbelt. Despite that, research from Women’s Aid shows that four in five people in Britain do not believe that the scale of domestic abuse in the UK is greater than that of car accidents or house fires. Educating young people about the true severity of domestic violence is a key part of prevention work. The culture of inequality and misogyny, often rooted in harmful masculine norms, contributes to the widespread tolerance of domestic abuse.
Helen Grant (Maidstone and Malling) (Con)
As a family lawyer for many years before I came here, I found that some children—some as young as 13—felt it absolutely normal to be hit by their boyfriends. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that educating our young people, girls and boys, about the importance of respecting themselves and others is a key part of eradicating violence across the board?
Steve Witherden
Yes, I 100% agree. The role of education cannot be understated; it is fundamentally important.
Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)
Before we continue, I would appreciate it if people would desist from interventions, because they take a lot of time away from people whose names are down to speak.
Steve Witherden
Schools must be equipped to teach boys and young men to hold themselves accountable to women and each other. That is essential to beginning the work of dismantling those toxic cultures and creating safer environments for all. Empowering young people with the knowledge and skills to challenge inequalities and change harmful norms would enable meaningful progress in preventing domestic violence. What discussions has the Minister, who I know is deeply committed to ending violence against women and girls, had with colleagues in the Department for Education about making awareness-raising and prevention work on domestic violence and domestic homicide a priority in schools? How are the Government supporting schools to tackle domestic violence at its core?
Rural Depopulation
Steve Witherden Excerpts(5 months, 3 weeks ago)
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This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Seema Malhotra)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton) on his successful securing of this debate. I am extremely grateful to him and to right hon. and hon. Members for taking part in the debate. I will mention those who have made substantial contributions: my hon. Friends the Members for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) and for Hexham (Joe Morris), the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) and the hon. Members for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart), for Strangford (Jim Shannon), for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper), for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald), for Ceredigion Preseli (Ben Lake) and for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone). I acknowledge the contributions from the Opposition leads as well, including the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers).
I want to address many of the issues raised in today’s debate, which has focused on a range of key points and has brought together the challenges and consequences of depopulation in an important and effective way. I am heartened by my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar also saying that he recognises this is an issue that goes way beyond the Home Office and that he plans to raise a number of the challenges with other Departments. I encourage him to do so.
The Government recognise the importance of this debate, and the challenges faced by rural and island communities in Scotland, as well as in Northern Ireland and more widely across the United Kingdom in Wales and England. Those challenges are now coming to workforces, and are about supporting local and national economies, as well as encouraging young people to feel that they have opportunity in the areas where they grew up. A range of issues was raised and important points were extremely well made, including on some of the generational shifts that are having impacts on families, as well as community cohesion, wider integration and the continued success of local services, the challenges in recruitment across primary local sectors and public services, and the running of our local communities.
One of the points raised was in relation to the fishing and fish-processing industries, which is of concern to many colleagues in Scotland. We recognise the contribution of those industries to the lifeblood of our nation, including to coastal and rural communities. Those industries generate almost £2 billion in exports. We recognise the challenges of recruiting domestically. Those and other valuable jobs are often done in difficult circumstances. As has been discussed, there has been a reliance on migration over recent years.
Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)
Under the last Conservative Government, too often we saw rampant exploitation of migrant workers in the seasonal workers scheme. Does the Minister share my concerns about such labour exploitation, and will she work with me on novel ideas to tackle it?
Seema Malhotra
I thank my hon. Friend for making that serious point, one that I will draw on in my remarks. I will continue to work with him and others on how we tackle that serious issue.
Migration has been an important part of the history of our nation, as was raised by the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire. He will know, as I do, that for generations people have travelled here from all over the world, contributing to our economy, studying in our universities, working in our public services and being part of our communities and the way we have built our nation together. All of us here are alive to the demographic challenges that remote communities particularly are facing. We are also committed to ensuring that the immigration system works in the interests of the whole of the UK.
We have seen net migration treble in five years, driven largely by a big increase in overseas recruitment. We are clear that net migration must come down, and that the immigration system needs to be properly controlled and managed. I make that point because it is for that reason we are setting out a new approach, which is integral to tackling some of the challenges outlined today. We will link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policy so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the UK.