Jess Phillips calls for Epstein files to be catalyst for long-term legislative change | Violence against women and girls

Jess Phillips said institutions could only be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls when some sort of “disaster” or “political scandal” hit the headlines.

Phillips, the minister responsible for protection and violence against women and girls, said she wanted to use the momentum from the Epstein files to push for long-term legislative change and greater support for survivors, rather than quick-fix reactive policy announcements.

Writing for the Guardian, the Labor MP for Birmingham Yardley said: “If all we get from the bravery of Epstein’s victims is remorse and sorrow, we will fail, change will do.

“That’s exactly what the government’s long-term strategy should be: long-term. I’m proud of the challenges we’re trying to overcome and the challenges that are emerging.” [violence against women and girls] A strategy with investment and systems change at its heart, but even that we must not let stand still, stretching when targets are met and never simply retreating, wavering or disregarding when it is politically expedient. “Epstein’s victims deserve better.”

But he added that he felt “weary, tired and frankly angry that women and children have to wait for a crisis to progress” and criticized the “bleed first, act later” approach.

Phillips said the victims Epstein deserved on behalf of the government ensured that “those who abused them were actually held accountable so that they couldn’t do it again.” He called for investment in prevention so that “a classroom in the UK today is less likely to have an Epstein in the future”.

“I have worked on this issue under many governments, it always felt a bit monotonous and investment in prevention was never made. We needed to change this, we needed to write a strategy that would actually deliver on our commitment to halve violence against women and children,” she wrote.

He added that more than a “commitment” was needed and instead a target that was “genuinely achievable and practically measurable” to hold government accountable and create a sense of focus.

To achieve this, Phillips suggested that the NHS should prioritize abuse in the same way as diabetes; schools should be given tools to deal with how abuse affects their students to prevent them from growing up as perpetrators or victims of abuse; and addressing the £13 billion lost annually in economic output to domestic abuse as a key component of boosting economic growth and productivity.

Appearing on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg program on Sunday, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said halving violence against women and girls over the next 10 years was “a priority and a duty” for Labor and all branches of government.

“The main focus should be on Epstein’s victims, as well as the work the Labor government is doing to tackle violence against women and girls,” Cooper said. “So this should be about listening to women. It should also be about listening to victims of violence.”