Last night, the Prime Minister chaired the Criminal Justice Taskforce setting out the immediate steps we are taking to provide further reassurance for women and girls – taking action to ensure they feel safe on our streets. The horrific case of Sarah Everard has unleashed a wave of feeling about women not feeling safe at night. We must do everything we can to ensure our streets are safe.
Alongside bringing in landmark legislation to toughen up sentences and putting more police on the streets, we are taking immediate steps to ensure women have the protections they need to feel safe again. These new measures include doubling the investment in our Safer Streets fund to £45m in order to provide better lighting and the greater use of CCTV in parks – protecting women and making sure they feel safe walking through our towns and cities. Ultimately, we must drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to better protect and defend them.
Today, Parliament will continue to debate our Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, with Labour having already confirmed that they will vote against it – standing in the way of our tough new laws including vital measures to protect women. I will be voting to make sure these proposals become law. It is shocking that Labour once again is playing political games, and is trying to block tough new laws to keep people safe, including many vital measures to protect women from violent criminals.
By voting against this Bill Labour are voting against tougher sentences for child murderers and sex offenders, killer drivers and measures that protect the vulnerable. Whilst I am working to keep people safe by reforming our justice system to keep our communities safe so that everyone can live their lives free from the fear of crime.