WOMEN across Britain will rise up against domestic abuse this weekend following on from the momentum of International Women’s Day.

The female-only Million Women Rise march, where protesters will dress in red, is demanding better government funding for victims of domestic abuse this year, under the banner “Never Forgotten.”

Million Women Rise will be marching for the 12th year on Saturday. Men are encouraged to support the march by either babysitting children for their partners, mothers, daughters and sisters or by standing on the pavement to cheer on the demonstrators.

Every year, over 100 women and girls are killed by men in Britain, according to the latest official figures.

Many more die as a result of health problems arising from the violence against them and some by taking their own lives.

At some point in their life, one in four women will experience domestic violence, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show, and two women are murdered every week by their partner or ex-partner.

Domestic violence has more repeat victims than any other crime and one incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute.

General union GMB equality officer Sue Hackett said the GMB Sisters are supporting the march and demanding that the government “puts back the money they have raided” from essential services that support women and children to escape their abusers and make them safe.

“A government’s duty first and foremost is to keep its citizens safe, to provide sanctuary for the most vulnerable people in our society and yet they have made a choice to fail them, allowing essential services to be stripped to the bone,” she said.

“When we see tax breaks for the wealthy, no real commitment to closing loopholes for tax avoidance and no proper sanctions for the tax evaders, they have no credibility for their austerity agenda. These are the burning injustices propagated by this uncaring government.”

The union welcomed the recent announcement by shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler that the next Labour government will require employers to have a domestic abuse employment policy and provide up to 10 days’ paid leave.

Thousands of women in London, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Leeds and Brighton also took to the streets today to strike alongside millions of women internationally for the third year running.

Organisations including Momentum, Women’s March London and food industry union BFAWU backed the global movement against the “destitution, overwork and violence” women face daily.

Women took strike action from their offices and factories, from care work and unpaid domestic work, and from community work and the bedroom.

Momentum member Natasha Josette said they supported the Women’s Strike because despite it being 2019, “women in this country still do the vast majority of the childcare and housework, are not believed when they report sexual abuse and violence, abortion is still illegal in Northern Ireland and austerity hits women the hardest.”

Organisers said the Women’s Strike is about “realising the power women already hold” and that it is their labour that “keeps the world turning and profits flowing.”

The Million Women Rise march will gather outside of the Selfridges store on Duke Street at 12 noon on Saturday.