Violence against Women and Girls Strategy

Debate between Jess Phillips and Emily Darlington

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

As somebody who was one of those professionals who went into schools, I could not agree more with the hon. Lady. I attended the same school as the Home Secretary, so when we were building the strategy, we kept talking about which of our teachers we would not have wanted to talk to about these issues, which was quite amusing. No offence to the teachers at our school in the ‘90s, but not many of them came out well when we were thinking about talking to them about consent, pornography or other things. What is being announced today is the use of specialists, but the point is that eventually teachers have to comfortable with talking about these matters. I think that my kids’ teachers are more comfortable than mine were, but there has to be development towards that.

[Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) (Lab)]

I want to say a huge thank you to the Safeguarding and Victims Ministers. I was struggling not to get over-emotional as my hon. Friend was making her statement, because many of us have come to this place to make a change for the women and girls in our lives and in our constituencies. This is a watershed moment and it is a chance for us to take individual actions, bringing together good men and good women across our constituencies to speak out and speak for the kind of society we want.

If the strategy is to be truly successful, it will have to increase the confidence of victims, in which case we may see the number of incidents that are reported rise; for me, that will be an indicator of the success of the strategy. One way to increase confidence is to ensure that no matter how high-profile someone is as a self-declared misogynist, they are held to account and brought back to this country to face criminal charges here. Does my hon. Friend agree that this Government should be doing all that they can to ensure that they pursue every single rapist, abuser, perpetrator, stalker, and that that will be the way to ensure that women and girls feel confident in our police and our court system?

[Jess Phillips]

I thank my hon. Friend for the diplomatic manner in which she is clearly representing high-profile cases in her constituency. I absolutely agree, and it goes to a number of points made by shadow Minister, too: “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how important you are. I don’t care if you ran a big department store. I don’t care if you are a movie mogul. I don’t care which country you come from. If you do this in our country, we will come for you.”

Child Rape Gangs

Debate between Jess Phillips and Emily Darlington

Monday 28th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

That does not deserve a response—and I actually quite like the hon. Gentleman. I have spent my entire career helping—[Interruption.] I wonder how many victims of grooming gangs he has sat and held hands with in court, and for how many he has gone round to their house in the morning to get them out of bed to get them into a courtroom. There is no way that I would be part of any cover-up. I will do everything I can, under a Home Secretary who will do everything she can, to ensure that those who are responsible are held accountable.

[Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) (Lab)]

I thank the three incredible, formidable women on the Front Bench—the Minister for Policing and Crime Prevention, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham (Dame Diana Johnson), the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) and the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones)—who have not just learned that this is an issue but have been working and campaigning on it for their entire lives and come to this place to create change. Since 2022, there has been an 88% increase in online grooming, and 81% of those groomed are young women and girls. Does the Minister think that the social media companies are doing enough? Does she think that the police understand the nature of online grooming enough to be able to protect young people from it?

[Jess Phillips]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. We often talk about historic cover-ups and failings, but we must also keep our eye on exactly where grooming is going on now and will take place in the future. She points out, completely rightly, that there is an ongoing grooming issue. Through the taskforce and work with various security departments, I have seen great examples of quite how focused police enforcement is on that. Do I think that social media companies could be doing more? The answer will always be yes.