Laura's campaign for tougher sentencing for violence against women has seen major success today as the Government has announced it would be backing it.
Laura's been working on ensuring perpetrators of violent acts against women receive tougher sentences following her work to secure new protections in the Domestic Abuse Act.
In January 2022, Laura met with the Justice Secretary (pictured above) to discuss the leniency of sentences for violence against women and she then raised the issue in Parliament as a Private Members Bill (you can see her presenting the Bill above). This was specifically in response to string of recent cases where killers got five years or less for brutal killings of their partners, sometimes concerning extended strangulation and, in one case, slitting her throat. Some of these sentences are less than you could get for pet theft. Laura's Bill called for a much higher starting point in manslaughter cases of this kind.
Today's announcement is part of a raft of new measures announced on domestic homicide following a detailed review by Clare Wade KC and more information can be found on the Government's website, here.
Following the announcement, Laura said:
"I have campaigned against violence against women ever since I was elected, and todays announcement is a positive step in ensuring that these crimes are treated with the seriousness that they deserve."
Laura wrote about the announcement for Grazia, which you can read here.