Call for Liverpool to adopt a City wide strategy to end violence against women and girls

THE Women's Equality Party candidate for Metro Mayor challenged fellow candidate Steve Rotheram to address Liverpool's extremely high rates of violence against women and girls.  Tabitha Morton, who is campaigning to end violence against women and girls across the Liverpool City region, said it was time the other mayoral candidates committed to a City wide strategy. "Since March 2016 when the government launched its strategy to end violence against women and girls, all major cities in the country have produced their own regional strategies. This includes Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford, Bristol and Oxford and almost all London boroughs, but not the Liverpool City region. It is not an issue our policy makers are unaware of: this is simply a lack of political will. Joe Anderson and the other Labour led Councils seem to be too busy with other things. Liverpool has the highest rates of reported domestic violence in the UK, and of very high risk domestic abuse incidents. This tells us that violence against women and girls is at epidemic levels in our region, and that is why we need a holistic strategy to end it. These are some of the worst human rights violations of our time."  said Tabitha Morton. Morton added that Liverpool's strategy should be based on best practises and developed in close collaboration with local organisations that work with victims and survivors of male violence. Tabitha Morton added that:- "Violence against women and girls is both a cause and a consequence of women's inequality. Services that help women survivors have been hit particularly hard by government cuts and women are being turned away from live saving support. This has to stop. The funding model is broken and the Women's Equality Party is calling for an end to competitive tendering as it does not meet the needs of women who are suffering or have survived male violence."

NHS staff in Liverpool deserve a better deal

TABITHA Morton, who is campaigning to be mayor of the Liverpool City Region, reacted with anger to the reports that senior NHS managers in the City have been awarded pay rises of up to 50%. Morton, the Women's Equality Party candidate for Liverpool Metro Mayor, said:- "The Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group's (CCG) decision to award grotesquely inflated pay rises to their senior team; their chairman Nadim Fazlani's salary rose by ₤50,000 to ₤155,000 in 2014 to 2015; is unjustified and grossly unfair. It is also gendered; women are hugely outnumbered in senior positions in the NHS and across working life."  Morton added that the Government has set a target of a 1% pay rise for NHS nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers this year. "Women take up the majority of these roles, and are working long hours for less and less reward, while senior pay continues to rise across the NHS. As Mayor of the Liverpool City Region I will ensure equal numbers of men and women are represented at senior level across the public and private sector. And I will implement policies to enable women to contribute fully to our region's economic growth, addressing unequal pay and the lack of opportunities to progress their careers. Liverpool's metro mayor will have new powers to make big changes in this region. I want to use those powers to help the women here to thrive." she said.