“The Government is failing women and girls” - Ellie Reeves responds to Boris Johnson not guaranteeing Rape Review targets will be met

Ellie Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Solicitor General, responding to the Prime Minister saying he cannot guarantee the Government’s Rape Review targets to improve prosecution and conviction rates will be met by 2024, said:

“The Government is failing women and girls on every front.

“Under this Prime Minister, rape victims are being abandoned by the justice system.

“Rape prosecutions are at a record low, victims are being left deserted, and it is clear this is a government that has absolutely no desire to fix the mess it has created and no plan to keep women and girls safe.”

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Notes to editors

• In an interview on Sky News today, Boris Johnson has said he cannot guarantee that targets to improve rape prosecution and conviction rates set out in the Government's Rape Review will be met. - Sky News

• Plans set out in the report, which was commissioned in 2019 and published in June of this year, said the volume of rape cases going to court should return to "at least 2016 levels" when there were 5,190 prosecutions and 2,991 convictions.

• But speaking to Sky's political editor Beth Rigby, the Prime Minister said achieving this by 2024 would be "incredibly tough". - Sky News