Kemi Badenoch has been accused of weaponising violence against women and girls and using \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201cdeeply inaccurate\u201d claims in her response to the government\u2019s plan to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips<\/a>, introduced the government\u2019s long-awaited strategy to tackle \u201cthe national emergency\u201d of violence against women and girls in the House of Commons, saying it did something \u201cthat none before it ever has\u201d by making tackling it a priority across local and national government, the criminal justice system and the voluntary sector.<\/p>\n Phillips told the Commons: \u201cWe are calling violence against women and girls the national emergency that it is. We are committing to halve these horrific crimes within a decade, and today we publish the strategy that sets us on that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n After the announcement of the strategy \u2013 which will focus on preventing radicalisation of young men, stopping abusers and supporting victims \u2013 the Conservative leader said plans to tackle misogyny in schools<\/a> were being introduced only because \u201csome people in Labour\u201d watched the Netflix drama Adolescence, adding that the focus should be on \u201cpeople, who come from cultures that don\u2019t respect women, coming into our country\u201d.<\/p>\n Badenoch added: \u201cThe fact is, it\u2019s not 11-year-old boys in school who are perpetrating violence against women and girls [\u2026] They need to do the right thing, put police officers on the street, stop people who come from cultures that don\u2019t respect women coming into our country, foreign criminals removed as soon as they commit crimes. Those are the sorts of things that will make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Ghadah Alnasseri, the co-executive director at Imkaan, a charity that supports women from ethnic minority backgrounds, said Badenoch\u2019s language could contribute to making migrant women less safe. Alnasseri pointed to attacks on migrant women and women of colour, such as an alleged rape in Walsall that police are treating as racially aggravated<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHer rhetoric is very dangerous,\u201d Alnasseri said, adding that the majority of victims of sexual and domestic abuse know their abuser. \u201cIt\u2019s deeply inaccurate, it\u2019s misinformation and it\u2019s spreading racism.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know of charities which have had to remove their signs so they are not attacked, where women have to seek help through back doors. This kind of language is really problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n