It always takes a calamity – a dreadful murder that reaches every front page, a mass paedophile ring being uncovered, or a political scandal unfolding – to make institutions sit up and act on violence against women and children. These windows of potential energy are never wasted by women’s rights activists. Historically, they have used them to build the #MeToo movement, to fight for legislation change and to push for greater resources for victims.

I’ve done it, many times – “never waste a crisis” is my mantra. In the past few weeks, while the nation’s attention has been on the political fallout from the Epstein files, I have seen the opportunity to push for more, for better. To move beyond the throwaway line about the victims being the most important thing – and to actually make them just that. Deeds not words are what matter. If repentance and sorrow is all we achieve out of the courage of the Epstein victims, we will have failed; change is all that will suffice.

That said, I am weary, tired and frankly downright furious that women and children must wait for a crisis to get progress. I wish that systems and institutions didn’t need us to bleed first and act second. Women ask for this at times of calm, we shouldn’t have to scream.

When we were writing Labour’s violence against women and girls strategy, this was always at the forefront of my mind. The fact that we couldn’t once again just have some nice prepackaged policy that we could pull off a shelf when the going got tough. It had to be long-term, systemic change in our........

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