London Mayor fails rape victims

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has so far failed to come up with the money to deliver on his promise of three new rape crisis centres in London.

Only £233,000 a year was included in this year's budget towards the centres. At least £744,000 annually is needed to fund the Mayor's commitment.

The recent spring Green Party conference (last month, in Blackpool) demanded that rape crisis centres receive regular, reliable, core funding so that they can provide this essential service securely and permanently, rather than having to rely on volunteer fundraising and emergency appeals. Rape crisis centres across the country are, despite valiant volunteer efforts, failing to meet the need of new and past victims. 25% of local authority areas have no provision for rape crisis centres at all.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party's Home Affairs spokesperson, was only one of two Assembly members who supported an amendment to the budget in February which would have provided funding for all the centres.

Jenny Jones said: "If you promise something, you must jolly well get on and deliver it. There's a lot of back-tracking going on and a lot of women need these centres and need them immediately. Women in London have been let down by the police over the Worboys case and other investigations into rape. Now the Mayor is letting them down over his promise of more support."