This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE government was urged yesterday to ensure there are no further closures of women’s refuges due to its austerity cuts.
Labour’s Baroness King of Bow warned that more than 30 refuges for the victims of domestic abuse and violence had been forced to close in the last four years.
She called on the coalition to find the money needed to stop further closures and prevent more women being put at risk.
The Labour peer warned that women and children were being forced to “walk a tightrope” between “coercive” partners and an “indifferent” state.
“Specialist refuges for women are closing their doors and turning people away every day due to government spending cuts. In the UK on a typical day 155 women and 103 children are turned away.”
Lady King said recent figures showed that Britain had slipped out of the top 20 countries for gender equality.
She said the coalition’s austerity measures had “hit women a staggering four times harder than men” through changes in benefits, tax credits and childcare costs.
