Mel B makes Sir Keir Starmer squirm as she demands he makes protecting women key priority

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Mel B and Kier Starmer at Women's Aid event.

MEL B made Sir Keir Starmer squirm as she demanded he make tackling violence against women and girls a key priority – as she told how she was failed by the justice system.

The Spice Girl legend got cheers and whoops from supporters last night as she insisted the Labour chief make it a promise ahead of the election.

Mel B gave Keir Starmer a grilling on making violence against women a key priority for Labour

She called on him to take his five promises to the nation and add a sixth one

And she warned him she would hold him to account for all his pledges “for every survivor and voice out there that can’t be heard” if he makes it to No10.

Addressing the Women’s Aid conference in London, she left the Labour boss speechless as she grilled him on his five vague missions for the country.

She probed: “Why isn’t domestic violence one of them? Are you going to add a sixth one to the list?”

Mel B powerfully recounted her abuse at the “horrendous abusive relationship” at the hands of her ex, where he would tell her what to wear, where to go, and how much cash she was allowed to have.

She bravely spoke out about her 10 year domestic abuse hell last year at a Sun event at the Tory party conference.

She insisted she would never go through the justice system again after she was let down, left unsupported through her case – and left “at the mercy” of people who didn’t understand her.

Shockingly, four in five women chose not to report their cases to cops due to fear of not being believed, and the stigma around coming forward.

Mel said: “We need to take care of these survivors. It’s an epidemic and it’s not going anywhere. It’s getting worse and worse and worse.”

She urged the Labour boss to plough more cash into women’s refuges to stop “a whole country that’s traumatised from being abused on many different levels”.

Sir Keir called for better education to help kids learn about misogyny from a young age – saying he wanted to make change “as a dad and as a human being”.

He promised he would set up the “most committed government you will ever have” to helping women fight for justice – and vowed to boost funding for refuges and centres across the country.

But he refused to commit to making tackling violence against women and girls a sixth pledge to add to the list.

It came as Labour today highlighted terrifying new research that domestic abuse crimes have nearly doubled, but charges have halved.

The Labour chief recalled working with brave parents John and Penny Clough, whose daughter Jane was violently murdered by her partner after a litany of failures.

New stats showed the number of domestic abuse related offences is up 120 per cent since 2015.

Over 915,000 cases were recorded in the year ending September 2022, a significant increase from the 421,185 recorded between April 2015 and March 2016.

But the number of charges tumbled from 82,000 in 2015 to 43,000 last year, according to the CPS.

Labour have promised to introduce minimum sentences for offensive such as rape and stalking – and want to roll out specialist rape courts with extra prosecutors, to get cases heard quicker.