Why England reaching the knockout stage of Euro 2024 will only prolong the agony for millions - Jayne Dowle

Last week, domestic abuse charities in Leeds - in common with other support services around the UK - said they were "braced" for an increase in calls for help during this international tournament.

Figures from the Leeds Domestic Violence Service (LDVS) suggest that in the first week since the football tournament started, there had already been a rise in incidents.

The service, provided by a consortium of charities, had to date received 22 per cent more calls since the Euros kicked off - an increase of 19 per cent compared to June 2023. Almost all - 95 per cent - were women, trapped in their homes, at the mercy of men who can’t control their tempers when the game doesn’t go their way.

“Calls could potentially double - that's what we've seen historically, and we are already seeing the trend,” says Leeds Women’s Aid chief executive Nik Peasgood. “If England lose, domestic abuse can increase by up to 40 per cent; if they win, surprisingly, it can still increase by around a quarter.”

England Till I Die is one of the slogans re-interpreted for a powerful new awareness-raising billboard and social media campaign from Women’s Aid this tournament; the chilling line underneath reads, ‘on average one woman every week is killed by a current or ex partner’.

If you see it, share it. It’s time for all those years of hurt (another slogan re-imagined) to end, and for domestic violence and its ugly sisters, domestic abuse and coercive control, to become a key issue across all government departments, from the Home Office to Education.

One in five people will have experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime – that’s millions of voters, in every constituency, rural or urban, rich or poor, says Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, who is calling for the next government to make tackling it a priority not just in theory, but in practice.

This should start from the earliest years. The Conservatives under Rishi Sunak have been tying themselves into knots over sex education for under-nines, but what’s missing in schools is space in the curriculum for emotional education.

Primary school teachers will tell you of that child who hides in cupboards, who doesn’t want to go home when the bell rings, or lashes out at others in uncontrollable fury. Too many of these children are growing up in violent homes, where a crack across the face is as much a part of family routine as a glass of milk and a biscuit for bed.

And this as Ms Jacobs says, happens across the social spectrum. It’s not ‘someone else’s problem’; it could be happening next door to you, right now. All families are different, but all families marred by domestic violence are the same, whatever their postcode.

Schools are often the first place to identify children living with domestic violence and best-placed to do so, but over-burdened already. Perhaps some of the millions Labour proposes to raise from VAT on private school fees should be earmarked immediately to help.

I know that secondary schools hold PSHE (personal, social, health and education) sessions. But I also know that these are too often truncated and taught by staff who’ve been reluctantly seconded to take charge.

PSHE should be a priority, not a box-ticking exercise, and it should, no excuses, focus on guiding young people towards healthy and respectful relationships, with no holds-barred information about the detrimental effects of drink and drugs.

If you are fortunate enough to never have experienced domestic violence, or known anyone too scared to be in the same room as their partner – another Women’s Aid billboard reads ‘He’s Coming Home’, and it’s not in a good way - you might be wondering why a cause for national celebration or commiseration should mean someone has to suffer.

It’s just one of the questions around domestic violence that need to become part of that national conversation. The answer, by the way, is usually heightened ‘emotions’, too much booze and possibly, aggression-enhancing pharmaceuticals.

The Beautiful Game should not be marred like this, and neither should the lives of so many women and children, living in even further fear when football comes around.