Rishi Sunak has pledged to make “downblousing” a criminal offence – just hours after leadership rival Liz Truss said she would crack down on catcalling if she becomes prime minister.
The two hopefuls have announced competing plans on how they will tackle sexual violence against women and girls as they ramp up their bids to win the keys to Number 10.
If he succeeds in the race to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, Mr Sunak announced he would make the act of taking photos down a woman’s top without consent, or “downblousing”, illegal.
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At the moment in England and Wales, acts such as upskirting or voyeurism are criminalised but downblousing is not covered by existing legislation.
Mr Sunak said he would also create a new emergency taskforce to hunt down grooming gangs, saying we can’t “let sensitivities over race stop us from catching dangerous criminals who prey on women”.
Under his crackdown, the former chancellor said suspects would be forced to explain why they have the phone numbers or contact details of children, and would have to reveal their ethnicity or nationality for the purposes of crime prevention.
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He also wants to launch a national grooming gangs whistleblower network to gather intelligence and create a dedicated database to help the police monitor suspects.
In order to help police identify victims of grooming gangs, Mr Sunak would boost their training, reminding officers to serve without fear or favour.
Mr Sunak has also pledged to support victims of sexual assault by ensuring they have life-long access to mental health treatment.
He said sexual violence against women and girls “should be treated as a national emergency”.
The announcement comes hours after his Tory leadership rival pledged to better protect women and girls from violence and abuse by introducing a standalone offence to criminalise street harassment and a national domestic abuse register.
The foreign secretary claimed it is the responsibility of all political leaders to “do more”, saying that over the last two years, the nation has been “shocked” by the number of high profile murders of women, many in London.
Ms Truss believes the register, which would include coercive and controlling behaviour and financial abuse, would break the cycle of repeat offending.
As part of her crackdown, which builds on the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the cabinet minister also pledged to accelerate the process for handling rape cases.
She has also announced that she will tell police to cut crimes like murder, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 20% by the end of the current parliament.
It means forces would have less than two years to lower these crimes by a fifth.
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But Ms Truss says she wants the police to focus less on “Twitter rows and hurt feelings”.
In another key announcement on Wednesday night, Ms Truss promised to build stronger economic and trade ties with Commonwealth nations to counter China’s “growing malign influence”.
If she succeeds Mr Johnson as prime minister in September, she said she would launch a “New Commonwealth Deal”, aimed at strengthening economic ties across the Commonwealth.
The pledges mark a move away from a focus on tax cuts which have dominated much of the Tory leadership debate.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will take part in a head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday 4th August at 8pm hosted by Kay Burley.
If you would like to be a member of the live studio audience and be in with a chance of asking a question, please apply here.
