THE Vice Chairman of the Tories says the Government still has a “lot of work” to do in better protecting women from violence.
Speaking to GB News, Rachel Maclean, the former Minister of State for Victims and Vulnerability, also highlighted extreme porn online as a major issue which needed tackling.
She told Gloria De Piero in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow (SUNDAY): “I think all of us women, it doesn't matter how old you are or what walk of life you're in, have that fear of violence. It is just part of your daily experience. And you kind of take it for granted, almost, that you have to do certain things, behave in a certain way, and sort of look after yourself.
“I suppose, in a sense, I've raised my daughter to be a very strong woman. But there's still that additional fear over where she is, and who she is with and how she is going to get home. More so than the boys.
“But what I learned when I became a Minister responsible for it was that every woman will feel that. It doesn't really matter how old they are or where they live. And, let's be clear, a lot of men and boys feel it as well.”
Ms Maclean said another key task is cracking down on the growth of explicit porn online.
She continued: “The online safety bill I think is a brilliant first step because I know that young men and young women and girls and children are growing up, seeing this stuff and thinking it's normal.
“So we do need to sort that out. But on the wider question about what do we do on the streets? I think the Government is actually doing a lot of very good things. We've done a huge amount of work in the violence against women and girls space.
“Successive Prime Ministers and Home Secretaries have pushed it. There's a lot of work we still need to do. But it starts with education. It starts with the sort of stuff we’re seeing now on the Tube in London. The campaign posters there are brilliant because it's saying we don't accept this. It’s saying ‘it's not normal to behave like this on the street’. It's about raising awareness across the whole of society. I don't think this should be left to women to fix it. It should be society as a whole that fixes it.”
Meanwhile Ms Maclean also revealed how, despite rising to the lofty position of vice-Chair of her party, she wasn’t always a Tory.
“In my younger days, I was very briefly a member of the Socialist Workers Party,” she said.
“I burned my bra and went on marches, when I was a student. It wasn't until my early 30s that I actually became a Conservative when I started my own business.”
Watch Gloria Meets every Sunday at 6pm, only on GB News.
