Jess Phillips has called for the UK government to take violence against women more seriously than the crackdown on small boats crossing the English Channel as she once again read out a list of names of women killed by men in the last year.
For the ninth year, the Labour MP named before parliament every woman killed in the UK in the last 12 months where the primary suspect or known killer was a man. She told the Commons the “epidemic of violence against women and girls has not abated”.
It took around five minutes to read out more than 100 names.
Before reading out the list, Phillips told MPs: “I am tired that women’s safety matters so much less in this place than small boats. I am tired of fighting for systematic change and being given table scraps.
“Never again do I want to hear a politician say that lessons will be learned from abject failure, it is not true. This list is no longer just a testament to these women’s lives, it is a testament to our collective failure.”
The backbench MP, a former shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said that at least half of the women whose names she read out could have been saved.
Phillips spoke during a debate on language in politics on International Women’s Day, and the tribute came on the day a report was published into the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens.