5 October 2021 

Felicia Willow, Interim CEO at the Fawcett Society:

"The Prime Minister is right that the police need to enforce current crimes against women. He has missed the mark by not understanding that including misogyny within hate crime law would give the police the tools to do that.

It wouldn't add a new offence - instead, just as we can recognise racially aggravated assault and punish and rehabilitate it appropriately, it would recognise assaults or online threats that are motivated by hostility towards women.

This is not a silver bullet - there is so much more that the police, schools, and Government need to do to make women safe. But including misogyny in hate crime law would send a message to the public and to the police that women's safety matters.

Importantly, the Government  committed to piloting recording misogyny hate crime in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder, and to listening to the Law Commission's report on hate crime law reform. We hope the PM's comments do not reflect a change to that established position - if they do, this would be a promise to women that he has broken."