THOUSANDS of women will gather in central London today in the annual Million Women Rise march to call for an end to men’s violence against women and girls.

The protest, which marks International Women’s Day, will gather at Duke Street at 12 noon before heading to rally at Trafalgar Square.

Figures by campaigners show that one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

In the year ending March 2023, almost half of adult female homicide victims in England and Wales were killed in a domestic homicide, according to official data, with all but one killed by a male suspect.

A protest organiser said: “Million Women Rise is not just a march; it is a movement.

“We march because our sisters’ lives are stolen by men’s violence every day.”

Another volunteer said: “Each day, we are witnessing and experiencing the ways in which men’s abusive behaviour is ignored, tolerated, glossed over and even rewarded.

“At the same time, so many of our movements are being forced into silence.

“Rights which were hard fought for are being taken away at the whims of power-hungry men. We rise because our collective liberation is our birthright.”