Labour is not being honest about the threats to women and girls

Following a string of rapes, attacks and sexual assaults committed by unvetted asylum seekers across British towns and cities, the Labour government has finally revealed its grand plan for tackling violence against women and girls. The solution? A £20million anti-misogyny education programme, to be rolled out in schools across England from next year.

‘Too often, toxic ideas are taking hold early and going unchallenged’, said UK prime minister Keir Starmer of the new measures. ‘This government is stepping in sooner… intervening when warning signs appear to stop harm before it starts.’ Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips added that violence against women and girls is a ‘national emergency’, and that ‘all of this is about trying to prevent those behaviours escalating into the terrible figures’.

In trials of the programme, the BBC reports that ‘pupils will be taught about consent, the dangers of sharing intimate images, how to identify positive role models, and to challenge unhealthy myths about women and relationships’. While teachers will be given training to ‘spot misogyny’ in the classroom, ‘high-risk’ boys could be sent away on chillingly termed ‘behavioural courses’ to ‘tackle their prejudice against women and girls’. In a particularly nasty turn of phrase, the Beeb adds that ‘by tackling the early roots of misogyny’, the government hopes to ‘prevent young men from becoming violent abusers’. Must be nice to be a young lad in Britain today, eh? To be reminded constantly to opt out of your default ‘abuser’ setting.

As you’d probably expect, Labour’s plans to ‘halve violence against women and girls’ over the next decade make no reference to grooming gangs (concerns about which Starmer once dismissed as ‘far right’, and which Phillips has continually downplayed). There is also no mention of the recent migrant crime wave, either. Statistics from 50 asylum hotels (about a quarter of the total) show that at least 44 residents have been charged with sexual offences in the past year alone. A quarter of all recorded sexual assaults in 2024 were committed by foreign nationals, who make up just 11 per cent of the population. It’s no wonder, then, that some 67 per cent of Britons agree that small-boat migrants – many of whom hail from misogynistic cultures – pose a threat to British women and girls. Yet the government has arrived at the conclusion, once again, that the real issue here is those blasted Andrew Tate videos and the 11-year-olds boys who watch them.

Yes, it’s true that boys and girls face unique challenges today. Social media have opened up a whole new world of opportunities for children to humiliate one another, from intimate photo-sharing to the Snapchat story-immortalisation of their most embarrassing moments. But the idea that the boys act this way because they haven’t been explicitly told ‘That’s sexist!’ is, frankly, ridiculous. What’s more, for a generation that already reports having a depressingly low level of cross-gender relationships, both romantic and platonic, further pathologisation of male-female interaction is the last thing they need.

After the British public has spent years beseeching the government to secure the borders from illegal migrants, waiting for any ounce of justice for what was done to thousands of girls by rape gangs, and being brow-beaten for daring to suggest that women and girls should be allowed private spaces, is this really what Labour thinks it’s wise to focus on?

This re-education programme is a kick in the teeth for men and women, boys and girls, alike.

Georgina Mumford is an editorial assistant at spiked.