{"id":22047,"date":"2026-02-15T15:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22047"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:15:18","slug":"jess-phillips-calls-for-epstein-files-to-be-catalyst-for-long-term-legislative-change-violence-against-women-and-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22047","title":{"rendered":"Jess Phillips calls for Epstein files to be catalyst for long-term legislative change | Violence against women and girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Institutions can be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls only when some sort of \u201ccalamity\u201d or \u201cpolitical scandal\u201d hits the headlines, Jess Phillips<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

Phillips, the minister for safeguarding 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.<\/p>\n

Writing for the Guardian<\/a>, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley said: \u201cIf repentance and sorrow is all we achieve out of the courage of the Epstein victims we will have failed, change is all that will suffice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe long-term strategy of the government must be exactly that \u2013 long term. I am proud of the challenge we have tried to rise to, of the [violence against women and girls] strategy with investment and system change at its heart, but we mustn\u2019t let even that stand still, it must stretch when ambitions are met and it must never only be pulled out and waved around or cared about when it is politically expedient to do so. Epstein\u2019s victims deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she added that she felt \u201cweary, tired and frankly downright furious that women and children must wait for a crisis to get progress\u201d, and criticised an attitude of \u201cbleed first and act second\u201d.<\/p>\n

Phillips said Epstein\u2019s victims deserved for the government ensure that \u201cthose who abused them are actually held accountable so they can\u2019t do it again\u201d. She called for investment in prevention so there was \u201cless likely to be a future Epstein in a UK classroom today\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Phillips said schools should be given tools to deal with how abuses affect their pupils to prevent them growing up as perpetrators of abuse or survivors.<\/span> Photograph: Klaus Vedfelt\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have worked on this issue under many governments, it always felt a bit one tone, and investment in prevention has never been made. We had to change that, we had to write a strategy that would actually deliver on our commitment to halve violence against women and children,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

There needs to be more than a \u201ccommitment\u201d, and instead an aim that is \u201cactually achievable and practically measurable\u201d in order to hold the government to account and create a sense of focus, she added.<\/p>\n

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To achieve this, Phillips suggested that the NHS<\/a> should prioritise abuse in the same way as diabetes; schools should be given tools to deal with how abuses affect their pupils to prevent them growing up as perpetrators of abuse or survivors; and addressing the \u00a313bn lost annually in economic output to domestic abuse as a key component of improving economic growth and productivity.<\/p>\n

On the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said halving violence against women and girls over the next 10 years was \u201ca priority and a mission\u201d for Labour<\/a> and across governmental departments. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe real focus should be on Epstein\u2019s victims, and also the work that this Labour government has been doing to tackle violence against women and girls,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cSo that has to be about listening to women. It also has to be listening to survivors of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Jess #Phillips #calls #Epstein #files #catalyst #longterm #legislative #change #Violence #women #girls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Institutions can be persuaded … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}