Labour MP Jess Phillips urges government to act faster to protect domestic abuse survivors in interview with Vogue

Jessica Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and women’s rights campaigner, has urged the government to act faster to protect domestic abuse survivors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Phillips, who was recently appointed the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, has been working with specialist frontline services such as Southall Black Sisters to campaign for alternative safe accommodation for those fleeing domestic abuse, as women’s refuges across the country are at capacity.

More than 25 frontline domestic abuse services have reported an increase in their caseload since the start of the epidemic, while the National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25 per cent increase in calls since lockdown began. On a single day in April, calls to the helpline were up by 120 per cent.

Speaking to Vogue, Phillips said: “All I’m asking [the government] to do now is to provide extra refuge and accommodation for victims of domestic abuse. We can provide that through university halls, void social housing properties, hotels and hostels.”

On April 11, Priti Patel, the home secretary, launched a government campaign to raise awareness of the services that are still available to survivors during lockdown, with a £2m funding boost for domestic abuse helplines and online support services.

During the announcement which occurred during the daily press conference, Patel said: “Where a victim, and their children, do need to leave, we will ensure they have a safe place to go. That’s why we are looking at alternative accommodation to best support the work of refuges.”

However, campaigners including Phillips have criticised the government for not following up on its pledge to shelter domestic abuse survivors. Earlier this month, hotel and hostel chains sent a written offer of accommodation to the government, suggesting that tens of thousands of hotel rooms could be used to shelter women and children fleeing abuse.

The initiative has the backing of over 30 women’s charities, as well as the domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, and the victims commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird. The government has yet to respond to the offer.

In response to the pressing need for alternative accommodation to protect women, Phillips said: “I don’t know what the hold up is. I say this with genuine feeling: I don’t think it’s that the home office ministers don’t care… I think they are worried that what is happening would, essentially, take us into a situation that was better than before, and that they might have to maintain that. But so what, surely they should want that anyway?"

She added: “They’re paying people to stay at home and not go to work – which is absolutely the right thing to do – but if that wasn’t an ideological step too far, then I don’t see how making sure that sustainable funding for domestic violence refuges isn’t an ideological step too far, either.”

The violence against women (VAWG) sector has faced severe funding cuts in recent years due to austerity measures. Since 2010, one in six domestic abuse refuges has had to close its doors due to lack of funding, while 60 per cent of women were turned away from refuges last year.

Phillips, who previously worked for domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid, explained the complexities of leaving an abusive household, arguing that the decision to flee to a refuge is “one of the hardest things for a woman to do.”

“I try to get people to understand how difficult it is for a woman to break away by using the example of when the fire alarm goes off,” Phillips explains.

“You don’t know if it’s a real fire or not, but they tell you to always leave your belongings – but literally nobody does that. When people say, why doesn’t she leave? You wouldn’t leave your mobile phone behind to save your own life… but you expect women to turn away from their family, their jobs, and their lives?”

Karen Ingala Smith, the founder of Counting Dead Women, a project that records the killing of women by men in the UK, has reported that domestic abuse killings appear to have doubled during the coronavirus lockdown, after identifying at least 16 suspected killings that occurred between 23 March and 12 April.

Women’s Aid has said that an emergency £48.2m fund is needed to support frontline services during the crisis, 84 per cent of which have been forced to reduce or cancel their services in the wake of the pandemic.