Is there nothing Keir Starmer really regrets? The Prime Minister claimed this week that there wasn’t anything he would have done differently if he were starting out in government now knowing what he does. He might have a different answer in private, but either way, there are plenty of people who could make some suggestions if Starmer really thinks there’s nothing he should regret. One could be that he made a promise he looks increasingly unlikely to keep.

The Labour manifesto pledged to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, which was an ambitious promise to say the least. Realising it always relied on a colossal government effort, as well as a stronger third sector supporting victims and tackling perpetrators.

So far, neither of these things are in the offing. The pledge itself actually appeared to have been buried when Starmer recently launched his “Plan for Change”, which only mentioned neighbourhood policing as a priority. There were worries that the VAWG pledge had been dropped because it was not achievable. Charities working in this field, meanwhile, are in an existential crisis.

I’ve been writing about the third sector for long enough to know that charities are always very good at arguing that they need more money, but the situation facing victims’ charities is of another order. Rape Crisis, for instance, has 38........

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