Sir Keir Starmer talks to The Female Lead: "We have to call out misogyny"
The British Prime Minister on Violence Against Women and Girls, the Epstein Files and Andrew Tate...
In an exclusive interview, The Female Lead sat down with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to discuss the announcement of a new law which demands tech companies detect and remove intimate images shared without consent within 48-hours of them being flagged - with platforms failing to act facing fines of up to 10% of their qualifying worldwide revenue or having their services blocked in the UK.
During our interview with the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, we asked questions about the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy directly from The Female Lead community, including:
Making misogyny a hate crime in the UK
The need for men to call each other out for sexism and misogyny
Investigations into the British men named in the Epstein Files
What action is being taken to deal with the increase in domestic violence during men’s football matches
The influence of Andrew Tate on boys and young men
The Prime Minister on the new law which demands tech platforms to detect and remove intimate images shared without consent
“This is really important stuff. You might think that platform providers would want to do it really quickly, but we have to keep pushing.”
“We have to be very tough with platform providers. This is not an area where you can say everything that needs to be done has been done; we’ll be constantly looking at what more we can do. One of the most worrying aspects is the age of some of the victims here, and tragically, the age keeps going down; every time you look at it, it’s gone down a bit and down a bit.”
“I remember being profoundly depressed when I gave up being the chief prosecutor, and there was a piece of research out at the time which showed that the group of young women most at risk of violence were 16-19 year olds in relationships, which really took me aback.”
“We’ve got a government commitment, my personal commitment that we are going to half it [VAWG], which is a really big challenge but one I absolutely intend us to rise to.”
The Prime Minister on Reform’s plans to scrap the Equality Act
“I was really shocked by the news that Reform, the political party, want to tear up the Equality Act. This is an act that goes to our core values, one of which is women should be treated equally with men.”
The Prime Minister on the investigation of British men accused of criminal behaviour in the Epstein files
“We have to start with the victims. And one of the great tragedies of a lot of the coverage and discussion in the last few weeks has been that it hasn’t been focused on the victims. It’s been focused on others. I very strongly believe that all of those that have got any information in relation to Epstein or any of these cases, should come forward and tell the appropriate authorities what they know. And equally, that the law should go wherever the evidence is.”
On influencing boys and young men to disrupt the influence from the likes of Andrew Tate and others
“Firstly, I’m really worried about this. The amount [of misogyny] that is aimed at young boys and men now, Andrew Tate is an example of that. On the one hand, this apparently successful man but coming with absolutely bags of misogyny and young boys look at that, and it’s a confusing world for them. That’s just an example. We need to work doubly hard with our young boys at the moment who are being bombarded with these messages. Much more than in the past.”
The Prime Minister on misogyny in politics
“In politics, there’s a lot of misogyny. You only have to look at the abuse all politicians get and then put it into two categories, men and women, and there’s far more abuse for women than there is for men. I feel like it’s a daily duty to call it [misogyny] out in politics.”
“Why is it that women get so much more abuse than men? It’s not rocket science, but we need to discuss it. Having the discussion is part of the answer.”
“We have to call it out. We have to be clear about our responsibility as well, the way we behave. Constantly checking one’s own behaviour. If you want to change culture, then you have to lead from the top. If people hear you saying you want change but you’re not modelling it, you’re giving license to them.”
Watch the full interview on our YouTube here:
Thank you for sharing this very important interview. And explaining it so clearly. 'If you want to change culture, then you have to lead from the top'. So true. So powerful.