Labour's Jess Phillips lists names of killed women in emotional speech

‘Warm words are no longer enough’: Emotional Labour MP Jess Phillips demands action on male violence as she reads out the names of Zara Aleena, Elle Edwards and Ashley Dale in the Commons in annual list of killed women

• Labour MP Jess Phillips demands action on male violence in Commons speech
• She reads out the names of 108 women killed in the UK over the past 12 months 

Labour MP Jess Phillips today demanded action on male violence as she listed those women suspected to have been killed by men over the past year.

In an emotional speech to the House of Commons, the Birmingham Yardley MP insisted that ‘warm words are no longer enough’.

It has become a tradition for Ms Phillips to read out the names of women killed in the UK in the past 12 months during the annual International Women’s Day debate in the Commons.

This afternoon she listed 108 dead women where a man has been convicted or charged as the primary perpetrator of their killing. This included the names of Zara Aleena, Elle Edwards and Ashley Dale.

Ms Phillips said the bereaved families of those killed, as well as campaigners who compile the annual list, wanted to ‘make clear that lessons are not being learned’.

‘Warm words are no longer enough,’ she added. ‘We honour these women not by reading out their names, not by doing any of the promises that happen in this place, we honour them with deeds not with words.’

It has become a tradition for Labour MP Jess Phillips to read out the names of women killed in the past 12 months during the annual International Women’s Day debate in the Commons

Ms Phillips told MPs it was the ‘honour of my life’ to read out the list of killed women in the Commons each year.

She thanked the ‘arduous work’ of those who compile the annual list – the Counting Dead Women and Femicide Census projects founded by Karen Ingala Smith – and who ‘fight every day for killed women to be an issue of major public concern’.

Paying tribute to their work, Ms Phillips said: ‘The first year I read the list of women who had been killed by men, none of the women’s names sparked a moment of recognition for anyone other than their bereaved loved ones.

‘This year there will be names on this list we have all heard of – women who, following their brutal killings, have become household names.’

Among the names she read out were Zara Aleena, a 35-year-old aspiring lawyer from Ilford, east London, who was sexually assaulted and killed by a recently released offender in June last year.

Elle Edwards, a 26-year-old beautician, was shot outside a pub in Wallasey, the Wirral, on Christmas Eve. Three people have been arrested in connection with her murder.

Ashley Dale, a 28-year-old council worker, was found with a gunshot wound in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, on August 21 last year. 

The youngest on the list was 15-year-old Holly Newton, from Northumberland, and the oldest was 92-year-old Anne Woodbridge, from Weston-super-Mare.

Ashley Dale, a 28-year-old council worker, was found with a gunshot wound in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, on August 21 last year 

Elle Edwards (left), a 26-year-old beautician, was shot outside a pub on Christmas Eve. Zara Aleena, a 35-year-old aspiring lawyer, was sexually assaulted and killed in June last year

Despite there being more than 100 names on the list, Ms Phillips warned many more deaths are not recorded and others suffer ‘terrible domestic abuse and violence’.

‘I have read hundreds of inquest reports and domestic homicide reviews over the years,’ she added.

‘Everyone pushes for lessons to be learned, tells us next time it will be different. It never is.

‘This week alone I have spoken to a woman whose perpetrator turned up at her home while on bail for trying to attack her with a weapon. A call to the police left her waiting seven days for a response.

‘Femicide is currently not mentioned in the domestic abuse strategy. This is not OK.

‘I urge the Government to hurry up and release the long overdue sentencing review into domestic homicide.

‘There’s no reason why we are still waiting. All these women died in the time we have been promised this review.’

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