For nine years in succession, Labour MP Jess Phillips has read a list of women killed by men in the past twelve months, criticising the lack of attention given to women's safety in Parliament. She expressed weariness with the lack of systemic change, and said the issue seems to matter much less than small boats. The emotional reading of 98 names lasted over five minutes. Phillips credited organisations like Femicide Census for documenting these tragedies and highlighted failures such as the nonexistence of women's safety units within police forces. Her remarks came days after a UN rapporteur urged the Government to do more, stating that the UK’s strategies for tackling violence against women were inadequate. Grim statistics underline the urgency of the issue: a woman is killed by a man in the UK every three days, and one in four women experiences domestic violence. Meanwhile, a damning report issued today has shown how the killer of Sarah Everard should never have been allowed to become a police officer: see

The Metropolitan Police is ‘assessing’ a report of hate speech made against MP Lee Anderson after comments which he made on 23 February. The force said it had received the report after the MP claimed ‘Islamists’ had ‘got control’ of London mayor Sadiq Khan, and he had ‘given away our capital’ to extremists. The Ashfield MP refused to apologise, and was suspended from the Tory party the next day. The prime minister's official spokesman said the language used was ‘wrong’, but added that Rishi Sunak did not believe Mr Anderson was racist. Mr Khan has urged the prime minister to call the remarks racist and Islamophobic. Mr Anderson, the former Tory deputy chairman who is now sitting in the House of Commons as an independent, has continued to refuse to apologise and said Mr Sunak made a ‘mistake’ in suspending him. Some of his Conservative colleagues, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, have expressed agreement with his viewpoint.

The Department for Education has issued new guidelines prohibiting children from attending protests during school hours, following accusations that teachers allowed pupils to skip lessons for pro-Palestine rallies. Thousands of students participated in demonstrations against the war in Gaza in November, organised by the Stop the War Coalition (SWC). The Government's guidance, effective from August, explicitly states that leave of absence should not be granted for protest activities during school hours. SWC criticised the new rules as an attack on students' democratic right to protest. However, the Association of School and College Leaders expressed the view that pupils should not miss school for protests but recognised that they might well feel very strongly about the cause about which they are protesting: ‘We feel that these are matters that are best left to the discretion of schools.’

Oleg Orlov, a veteran human rights campaigner, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for criticising Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Orlov, 70, served as a leader in the Memorial human rights organisation, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 but was subsequently banned in Russia. He faced charges of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army by claiming it was engaged in ‘mass murder’ in Ukraine. Orlov staunchly defended his actions in court, lambasting the Russian state's descent into authoritarianism and fascism. The closure of Memorial marked a significant escalation in Vladimir Putin's crackdown on dissenting voices. Orlov's imprisonment reflects a broader trend of silencing anti-war activists. In his closing statement, Orlov paid tribute to Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on 9 February: he will be buried in Moscow on 1 March. on 1 March.