In the year leading up to March 2025, one in eight women in England and Wales had been a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. Almost 200 rapes are recorded every day. And on average, three women are killed by men in the UK every single week. Just pause and consider that.
There has been plenty of tough talk on violence against women and girls over the past decade – but too little action. We will deploy the full power of the state in the largest crackdown on violence perpetrated against women and girls in British history. This violence is a national emergency. And as a dad to a daughter, it terrifies me. But as a dad to two sons, it drives home that we can’t keep doing things the same way.
So much of this violence is fuelled by the casual misogyny that seeps through our culture, amplified online. Today’s children are growing up in a digital world many parents barely recognise. A place where pornography is easy to access, misogyny spreads fast and loud – and hateful voices tell our boys that control is strength and empathy is weakness.
Such figures include Andrew Tate, of whom 41% of young men now say they have a positive view. Other studies show that our young men are becoming more regressive in their attitudes to consent and equality – something that should concern us all.
That’s why the prime minister has made tackling violence against women and girls a personal priority. And it’s why this government has set a clear, ambitious target: to halve this violence within a decade.
Demonstrators march against rising violence against women and girls, London, 18 January 2025. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images
Today, we launch a new strategy to deliver on that promise. This is a radical approach: a whole-system response that accepts this crisis cannot be fixed by any one institution alone. The strategy focuses on three things: stopping young men being pulled towards harm, stopping abusers and supporting victims.
We will crack down on perpetrators with the full force of the state, harnessing better data, smarter policing and specialist teams to identify the most dangerous offenders, disrupt them and pursue them relentlessly.
And we are strengthening protection for victims – including through a national expansion of domestic abuse protection orders, allowing courts to impose curfews, tagging and exclusion zones on abusers, with tough penalties for breaches. All of this is backed by bold reform of the criminal courts – to deliver the swifter justice that victims deserve.
But in truth, this fight starts much earlier than the criminal justice process. If we are serious about culture change – about building a country where women and girls can live free from fear, respected and safe – the battle begins with how we raise our boys.
We are making it harder for kids to access harmful, misogynistic content, criminalising strangulation pornography, and putting the onus on tech companies to stop cyberflashing under the online safety act.
But by the time a perpetrator is hauled before the courts, it’s already too late. So prevention sits at the heart of this strategy. We will support schools and parents to teach consent, respect and healthy relationships with confidence. And we will challenge the harmful stereotypes that are often baked in early: that boys shouldn’t cry, that asking for help is weakness, that “real men” hide their feelings.
As someone who struggled through his teenage years without a dad, I know how crucial positive male role models are. And we need more men in this conversation – as allies and advocates.
So next year, I will bring together a national summit on men and boys – not to lecture, but to listen. To shape a better story about what it means to be a man in Britain today.
These measures protect women and girls. But they also protect boys from being drawn into this culture. Because toxic masculinity and violence against women and girls are very much connected. To end one, we must confront the other. I want my daughter to grow up without fear. I want my sons to grow up knowing that masculinity can be kind.
This strategy represents the largest crackdown to stop violence against women and girls in British history. It’s a change that belongs to every one of us.
David Lammy MP is the deputy prime minister, lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice
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