May elections: Party leaders asked to commit to ending all forms of VAWG

Ahead of the local elections in England and the national elections in the Welsh Senedd and Scottish Holyrood today (7th May 2026), the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) wrote to party leaders and Local Government Association (LGA) Group Chairs asking them to commit to five key asks to end VAWG.

This election is a crucial opportunity to move us closer to ending VAWG. The government has committed to halve VAWG in a decade, however greater investment at a local level is vital to this mission, and no victim-survivor can be left behind. 

Calling on our 5 key asks, we asked all parties to commit to:

1. Prioritise the prevention of VAWG locally, with investment in educational settings and public campaigns to shift harmful attitudes and behaviours.
2. Tackle all forms of VAWG. 
3. Advocate for the rights of all women and girls to live free from violence and abuse, including Black and minoritised, migrant and asylum-seeking, disabled and LGBTQ+ survivors. This also means challenging disinformation about VAWG, especially when it is exploited to stoke fear and division in communities by scapegoating people seeking safety in the UK. Use this guide to help counter disinformation in public discourse. 
4. Invest in local specialist VAWG services, with ring-fenced funding for services led ‘by and for’ marginalised survivors and specialist sexual violence services, and greater transparency about funding decisions.
5. Ensure that all local statutory services collaborate to tackle VAWG, incorporating bodies across health, housing and children’s social care.

Weaponisation of VAWG

In the lead-up to the election, we continue to call on political parties to stand against the weaponisation of VAWG to promote racist, anti-migrant agendas.

Our guide aims to support members of the public and politicians who care about ending violence against women and girls to talk about this issue accurately and sensitively, and to avoid misleading narratives that cause harm to survivors and minoritised communities and hamper our work to end VAWG. Download the guide here.

Read our full letter to party leaders here.