The Tories have failed to protect women for 12 years – today is the final straw

We are seeing the tragic consequences of inaction across the country, and this weekend we can see this is a particular problem for disabled women and girls, writes Anneliese Dodds

We urgently need to see action on this issue to protect all victims and survivors better (Getty/iStock)

This weekend, we simultaneously celebrate the International Day of Disabled People and are halfway through the UN’s Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, a campaign to eliminate violence against women.

For disabled women and girls, the conjunction is particularly important. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 17.5 per cent of disabled women between the ages of 16 and 59 have experienced domestic abuse, compared with 6.7 per cent of non-disabled women.

A landmark report published last week by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs, took evidence from more than 4,000 victims and survivors as well as from commissioning services across the country. Jacobs’s report suggests there is a deeply troubling postcode lottery for access to support – and that disabled women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic women, and LGBT+ women are particularly poorly provided for.