The Government faced calls to apologise to rape victims for their 'failures' to bring attackers to justice. Angela Rayner accused Justice Secretary Dominic Raab of allowing rapists to 'roam the streets'.
Labour's deputy leader clashed with Mr Raab over the justice system's handling of rape complaints during a feisty Prime Minister's Questions. She told the Commons: "He knows as well as I do that neighbourhood police can help prevent anti-social behaviour and knife crime.
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"But trusted local police are also crucial to protecting women. Women feel unsafe on Britain’s streets, always looking over our shoulder as we hurry to our front door.
"Can he tell me under his watch as justice secretary, what is the charge rate for rape?”
Mr Raab responded that tackling rape is 'one of our top priorities'. He added: "She asks what we are doing about it, since 2019 police referrals of cases have doubled, CPS charges have doubled, she asks on my watch what has happened, the volume of convictions in rape cases has increased by two-thirds.
"If she really wants to protect vulnerable women whether it is from rapists or other serious crimes they will back our parole reforms which will mean ministers are able to prevent them being released into the public and cause more threats."
But Ms Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, responded: "He hasn’t answered my question because he is too ashamed of the answer: 1.6% of rapists faced being charged for their crime – 1.6%. Let that sink in."
She added: "More than half-a-million cases of rape have been recorded by the police but the charge rate for those attacks have collapsed. He has served under five Tory prime ministers and had three years as Justice minister and on his watch, rapists are left to roam the streets.
"So will he apologise to those victims who will never get justice because of his failures?"
The Deputy Prime Minister replied: "They are talking a good game, in fact we have quadrupled funding for victims since 2010. If she looks at the latest data, the time it has taken from charge to completion of a rape case has come down by 10 weeks or 70% in the last three months alone.
"She should get her facts straight, particularly when talking about such a sensitive issue."
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