Tabitha's call for Liverpool to adopt a region-wide strategy to end violence against women and girls

Published 30 March 2017

The Women’s Equality Party candidate for Metro Mayor today challenged fellow candidate Steve Rotheram to address Liverpool’s extremely high rates of violence against women and girls.

Tabitha Morton, who is campaigning to end violence against women and girls across the Liverpool city region, said it was time the other mayoral candidates committed to a city-wide strategy.

“Since March 2016 when the government launched its strategy to end violence against women and girls, all major cities in the country have produced their own regional strategies,” she said. “This includes Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford, Bristol and Oxford and almost all London boroughs, but not the Liverpool city region. It is not an issue our policy-makers are unaware of: this is simply a lack of political will. Joe Anderson and the other Labour-led councils seem to be too busy with other things.”

“Liverpool has the highest rates of reported domestic violence in the UK, and of very high risk domestic abuse incidents. This tells us that violence against women and girls is at epidemic levels in our region, and that is why we need a holistic strategy to end it. These are some of the worst human rights violations of our time.”  

Morton added that Liverpool’s strategy should be based on best practises and developed in close collaboration with local organisations that work with victims and survivors of male violence.

“Violence against women and girls is both a cause and a consequence of women’s inequality,” she said. “Services that help women survivors have been hit particularly hard by government cuts and women are being turned away from live-saving support. This has to stop.”

She added: “The funding model is broken and the Women’s Equality Party is calling for an end to competitive tendering as it does not meet the needs of women who are suffering or have survived male violence.”

Tabitha Morton is standing for Mayor of Liverpool City Region with the following five priorities:

• Ending violence against women and girls;

• A better devolution deal;

• Valuing care;

• Equal skills and training;

• Transport for all.

Click here to read more about Tabitha Morton and her candidacy for Liverpool’s Metro Mayor >>