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MP Jess Phillips Stood In Parliament To Read Names Of 128 UK Women Murdered By Men
The politician continued her seven-year tradition in union with the Counting Dead Women project.
Labour MP Jess Phillips delivered a harrowing address in parliament, reading out the names of the 128 women who have been murdered by men in the past year. The Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding spent over five minutes spotlighting the names. The list included Sabina Nessa, a school teacher from East London who was murdered in the early evening as she walked to meet a friend.
As per The Independent, Phillips made a point of noting that the list only includes the names of victims where a male suspect has been charged. Reminding the MPs of another victim, the Labour politician said: “And finally, to mention Jomaa Jerrare, whose body was dumped and set on fire in a layby last August and nobody has been charged with her murder.”
Phillips went on to highlight the importance of thoroughly investigating the individual cases of murdered women. She said: “Many women like Jomaa don’t appear on our lists because no-one is ever charged with their killing or because they die by staged homicide and sudden death — falling from a building, overdose or suicide, and we never look into the history of domestic abuse in their cases.”
The list of names was compiled by Karen Ingala Smith, who leads the Counting Dead Women project. In a blistering comment, Phillips pointed out that Smith and her team are not paid to do this project. She told her peers: “This wasn’t the government doing the work, it was women giving their labour away for free.”
Smith is the CEO of nia, a London-based domestic and sexual violence charity that provides services for women and children who have experienced male violence. The charity also works to end male violence towards women and girls, and advocates for policy reform.
Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, also pointed to the watershed moment of Sarah Everard’s murder just over one year ago, which fuelled a national date about women’s safety or lack thereof.
According to the femicide census, which was produced with the help of Karen Ingala Smith, in 92% of cases, the victim knew or had some sort of relationship with the perpetrator. As such, Phillips is advocating for the government to put more work into preventing these types of murders. She remarked: “Every name I’m about to read, there will be a story about how better mental health services, even the slightest suggestion of offender management or the availability of quick specialist victims’ support, would have saved their lives.”
