When Did Women’s Aid Take Over Labour?

At what point did the charity Women’s Aid — once a grassroots refuge movement — become indistinguishable from the Labour Party’s domestic‑abuse agenda? That question may sound cynical, but it’s a serious one for anyone who believes in pluralism, balance, and independent policy‑making. Across Westminster, from ministerial appointments to charity funding statements, the line between political advocacy and charitable independence has never looked so blurred.

A Movement Becomes a Machine

Women’s Aid began life in the 1970s as a network of refuges run by volunteers helping women escape violent homes. Few would question the importance of that mission. But as the years passed, the organisation grew from local activism into a major lobbying and service‑delivery group — one that now plays a central role in shaping national domestic‑abuse policy. https://www.womensaid.org.uk/ That influence is now most visible inside Labour.

The most direct link is Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and now Parliamentary Under‑Secretary of State for Safeguarding & Violence Against Women and Girls. Before entering Parliament, Phillips worked for Women’s Aid Federation (West Midlands), managing refuge services and developing programmes for victims of domestic and sexual abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. https://www.retailtrust.org.uk/leaders-summit-january-2023/jess-phillips-mp/1326.article

When Labour returned to power in 2024, her appointment symbolised more than promotion — it signalled that Women’s Aid’s worldview had moved from the campaign trail into the ministerial corridor.

Charity and Party — in Lockstep

Since taking office, Labour’s messaging on domestic abuse could have been written directly from Women’s Aid’s press releases — in some cases, it almost was.

- When Labour pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, Women’s Aid immediately welcomed the goal: https://www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-responds-to-the-first-budget-of-the-new-labour-government/
- The House of Commons Library briefing (July 2024) notes Women’s Aid’s endorsement

and references the charity’s call for a £232 million annual funding boost: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2024-0155/
- When Labour proposed making domestic abuse an aggravating factor in assault cases, Women’s Aid again 'welcomed' the Bill: https://www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-respond-to-bill-proposal-which-would-make-domestic-abuse-an-aggravating-factor-in-assault-cases/
- During the 2020 lockdown, Labour joined Women’s Aid, Refuge, and SafeLives in urging emergency refuge funding: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/08/labour-urges-emergency-aid-for-domestic-abuse-services.

On 1st February 2021 the Ministry of Justice announced a further £40million funding boost for specialist rape and domestic abuse support services. The same source gives a figure of £125million as the extra funding provided to local authorities for the provision of safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children. That’s a grand total of an extra £213million Government funding to domestic and sexual abuse services over a 10-month period. This will be on top of the approximately £300million received by Women’s Aid affiliated charities in the UK annually.

Most astonishingly, there was NOT a comparable increase in the criminal courts?

Enter the Commissioners: Instrumentation or Independence?

Two statutory offices add another dimension to this charity‑party‑policy network: the Domestic Abuse Commissioner (DAC) and the Victims’ Commissioner (VC).

The DAC was established under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/domestic-abuse-commissioner-factsheet
- The DAC’s 'I need help' directory links to Women’s Aid services: https://domesticabusecommissioner.uk/i-need-help/
- The DAC uses Women’s Aid, Refuge, and similar research in reports: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b79d6b0ea2cb001315e591/E02933743_DAC_Annual_Report_22-23_v04.pdf

The Victims’ Commissioner’s annual survey similarly relies on data from domestic‑abuse charities: https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/news/fewer-than-half-of-victims-believe-they-can-get-justice-finds-victims-commissioner/
and broader evidence on victim treatment: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/36452/pdf/

The Broader Question

No one doubts the importance of protecting victims of abuse. But protection without balance breeds injustice. If Labour is to build a truly inclusive policy on family safety and wellbeing, it must listen to more than one voice. The conversation about domestic abuse, family courts, and child welfare cannot belong to one gender, one charity, or one ideology. Women’s Aid’s work remains vital — but so too are the voices it has crowded out.

In October 2025, Women’s Aid and the Labour Government decided to scrap presumption of parental involvement ‘to protect children from abusive parents’ post-divorce or separation between parents. The move hailed by domestic abuse campaigners after government review finds that it is part of 'a pro-contact culture' in the family courts that leaves some children at risk of harm. They ‘accidentally’ overlooked the fact that more children in the UK are killed while in the care of their mothers than their fathers. Some years ago, Women’s Aid ran a highly publicised ’19 child homicides’ campaign, claiming that in the previous 10 years 19 children had been killed after the family courts had ordered contact between the children and their father. Upon investigation this claim was hopelessly unfounded, in fact over the previous 10 years 332 children had been killed in the UK, the majority were killed while in the care of their mother. Two children were killed in a Women’s Aid Refuge by a mother ‘who wanted to hurt the father’ as she told the police when they arrived. Her name is Samiri Lupidi.

The fact that Women’s Aid can publish Nineteen Child Homicides just two months after this mother murdered her two children in one of their own refuges, tells you all you need to know about their standards of honesty. It may help you to understand why the Labour Government removed the principle of parental involvement if you consider that the Harms panel set up to conduct a review of this presumption had two members of Women’s Aid on it. Discrimination works best when cloaked in the guise of concern!

Conclusion

“When did Women’s Aid take over Labour?” Perhaps the better question is: when did Labour stop listening to anyone else? If the new government is serious about child welfare and family justice, it must open the door to all perspectives — women’s, men’s, children’s, and families’ alike. Because every story matters, and policymaking captured by one narrative serves no one well in the end.

For those who may wish to know when Women’s Aid took over Labour, the answer can be found in the reading of that remarkable woman’s book, Erin Pizzey, Refuge founder! The book title is, This Way To The Revolution!