For a number of years, we have heard about how much emphasis this Government place on tackling violence against women and girls, but the statistics show that so much of that is talk. It is about time that we started delivering, and making those interventions that challenge men and male behaviour.

Let us not mince our words: this is male violence against women and girls; these are crimes perpetrated by men.

In Westminster, men often take rather too much comfort in talk about great advances in equality, but the day-to-day lived experience of women is still poor. We take decisions every day to protect our own safety. It is well documented that female Members of Parliament receive more abuse and harassment than their male counterparts. In 21st century Britain, that is not good enough, and we need collective action to tackle it.

It would be nice to know that more of our male colleagues are genuinely concerned about our day-to-day lived experience. I lay that down as a challenge.

Jackie Doyle-Price in the House of Commons

In the week that we heard in Parliament from Olena Zelenska about the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, we are told that as many as 30 per cent of the women of Ukraine have been victims of sexual crimes in the conflict.

That is a clear reminder that rape remains a weapon of war.

We talk about the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative, which is good work, but what it rather euphemistically describes is the organised process of rape.

We hear that in Ukraine the youngest victim is just four years old, and the oldest is 85. That is the brutality of war, but until very recently the experience of women in war was not routinely considered. It is all very well us telling the rest of the world and virtue signalling about the issue, but we still have to sort things out here. I am afraid that sexual violence remains a real challenge and a lived experience for everyone.

It feels a bit “first world” to talk about some of the problems that we face here, but the trauma faced by any woman who is a victim of sexual violence is significant and lifelong. We must ensure that we deliver on our promises.

We have enshrined in the NHS a commitment to a lifetime therapeutic care pathway for any victim of sexual violence. In practice, that does not happen.

We know that very many women still wait for counselling months and months after an incident, and we know that is a barrier to bringing perpetrators to justice. When women relive what has happened to them, they re-traumatise themselves. They need support, but the NHS commitment is just words. Up and down this country, the local commissioning required to deliver it is not happening. We see victims of sexual violence as items of evidence. Their experience of trying to secure justice is utterly dehumanising.

We too often approach these issues from the perspective of the pointy-elbowed middle classes, and the most vulnerable in our society are left behind. We are seeing sex offenders self-identifying as women and being able to enter women’s prisons; we had a rape only very recently. That has to be tackled. And I will not be happy, either, until someone engaged in sex work who is murdered receives as much attention as a nice, pretty middle-class girl.

Jackie Doyle-Price, who is originally from Sheffield, is Conservative MP for Thurrock. This is an edited version of a speech given in Westminster Hall.

Female victims of sexual violence are being failed in the UK: Jackie Doyle-Price