Speeches by Phillips.

“While the strategy that will be announced on Thursday is for England and Wales and is devolved, I take a very personal interest in the safety and security of women in every one of the UK nations and, of course, in Northern Ireland, where the statistics on murder and femicide are there for everyone to see. I will contin…”

“I absolutely will do that. I commit to that here and will make sure that is noted down, because the strategy is not the end and it does not have all the answers. It is something that will have to be changed and worked on, and it will take everybody to do it. It is a fundamental shift. I absolutely commit to doing that.…”

“I would be happy to give evidence.”

“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the Angiolini inquiry. I cannot begin anywhere else than with acknowledging the abhorrent crime that led to the establishment of this important inquiry in the first place. Sarah Everard’s murder by a serving police officer was a betrayal of trus…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his tone and his genuinely constructive questioning. The first thing to say is that, absolutely, Operation Soteria started under the previous Government—I worked on it alongside Ministers, as well as police forces, at the time—and in that spirit, I always welcome such cross-party working.…”

“Okay, I will say “very soon”—that is the answer to that. When all hon. Members get to read Lady Elish’s full report, as I have—I obviously get it sooner—they will see that she particularly criticises Ministers or the police service standing up after part one of the report and saying, “Yes, we will just do everything,” …”

“We owe it to Sarah and to Sarah’s family, and to every family in our own constituencies that we have met, to ensure that this work actually gets done. I hear my hon. Friend’s anger at what progress has been made. Obviously this Labour Government will legislate and are putting on a statutory footing the issues around ve…”

“Do I think I will get enough money? Any Minister who stands before the House and says yes to that question is lying. Look, I would, of course, always want more money, but actually there are fundamental problems in our system and in the culture of organisations that more money will not solve. Take us having more police—…”

“I only wish that writing things on to the statute book changed the culture—it has been illegal to rape someone for quite some time, and it has been illegal to murder for even longer. I only wish that simply putting things on to the statute book made a difference. I would say to my hon. Friend’s police force that I alwa…”

“Although I am an expert in this particular field, I am by no means an expert on rural communities, with the disparity and the need for better “by and for” services; we have “by and for” services for other under-represented communities. I really feel that there needs to be a considerably greater lobby around rurality an…”

“I can give an example from this morning, when I met around 60 stakeholders from organisations that work with children, with women and girls, and with perpetrators—lots of civil society organisations and businesses. We were in Downing Street with the Prime Minister, but it was not an event that was about drinking warm w…”

“The right hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. In part 1 of the Angiolini inquiry, Lady Elish made recommendations with regard to psychological testing prior to police recruitment, based on that exact issue. She also references heavily in this part 2 report Baroness Bertin’s review into violent and misogynistic…”

“With regard to my hon. Friend’s comments on trust in policing, what I would say is that nobody dislikes a bad copper like a good copper. When I go all over the country, the ones I meet are the those who are doing innovative and brilliant things in their local police forces—that is why I go out and see them. To her comm…”

“The Minister for Policing is in the office right next to mine. I get up in literally everybody’s grill, but I am very welcome in her office. Policing reform has to be rooted in exactly what we are trying to do around violence against women and girls, because the issue is endemic, as are other failings to do with postco…”

“The findings of the report will absolutely inform the strategy. I do speak to Lady Elish—but I am not waiting for Lady Elish’s various reports to do things or not. I cannot wait for reports if something absolutely needs to be done. With regard to policing in Rochdale, I will ensure that the new National Centre for Viol…”

“I do not want to give too many trails on the strategy, but yes. For a long time, I have spent my career trying to put nicer, better plasters on cuts that do not get any smaller. That work is vital, but I want to stop the cuts from happening—I do not want to make nicer plasters any more—and that means doing things that …”

“It certainly does. There will not be a woman sitting in the Chamber today who has not experienced this—we have all felt unsafe. Lady Elish speaks for every single woman in the country when she says that. Actually, in my years of experience both personally and from working in this field, I have found the most frightenin…”

“Obviously, it was a manifesto commitment of this Government to ensure that there were specialist RASSO—rape and serious sexual offences—teams in every police force, for the exact reason that my hon. Friend has outlined. It is not in the gift of Ministers standing here to ensure that something exists in every police for…”

“As the mother of somebody in that age bracket who works in a pub, I just wanted to stand up on his behalf and say thank you to the Chancellor.”

“Oh yes—the pilot is in the hon. Gentleman’s area.”