I read the figure and my stomach turned, the anger rose in my throat and fury burned through my eyes, the way your chest tightens before your brain has even finished the sentence.
Up to £21.8 billion in total UK support committed to Ukraine.
Not a brand-new cheque written today, not one single payment handed over in one dramatic photo opportunity, and yes, before the clever little correction brigade starts polishing its keyboard, I know the detail matters. The UK Government’s own Ukraine support factsheet says the UK has committed up to £21.8 billion in total support to Ukraine, including military, non-military, humanitarian and financial support since Russia’s full-scale invasion. The House of Commons Library gives the same headline figure and says the UK has pledged £21.8 billion since February 2022. Starmer has also recommitted the UK to £3 billion a year in military support until 2030-31 and for as long as needed.
So let us not waste time pretending this is about me misunderstanding the number. I understand it perfectly well.
That is why I am furious -because the sentence is still obscene.
The UK has committed up to £21.8 billion in total support to Ukraine, while high-risk women fleeing violence in Wales are still fighting for immediate safe housing.
That is the line that lit the match.
Let me tell you now, once you have lived on the wrong side of Government priorities, once you have been the woman being told to wait, explain, evidence, repeat, prove, justify, return, endure, and somehow stay alive politely while systems get themselves organised, you do not read a number like that as an abstract public finance issue. You read it as a message.
Money can be found, Urgency can be created, Risk can be understood, Threat can be taken seriously, and security can be planned years ahead.
Just not always for women, children, or rape victims here.
Just not always for the girls groomed and abused while institutions looked everywhere except directly at what was happening.
Just not always for the woman with keys in her hand and terror in her chest, being told by a system that she is technically housed, as if technical housing ever stopped a perpetrator with reach.
That is what makes me rage.
Not because I think Ukraine is irrelevant, war is not serious, or because I think the UK should pretend foreign threats do not exist. Spare me that lazy comeback before it even gets dressed.
What I am saying is this: A Government that can speak fluently about international defence has no excuse for stuttering when asked to defend women and children inside its own borders.
A Government that can commit itself until 2030-31 “for as long as needed” can stop telling domestic abuse victims there is no suitable accommodation.
A Government that can understand threat abroad can damn well understand threat at home.
Threats do not only arrive in a tank, threats have a key to your front door, knows your routine, has your old address, your family connections, your social circle, your workplace, your child’s school, your phone number, your fear. Sometimes threat is not on the evening news because it is already stood nose to nose with you in the bedroom.
That is what our useless, unfair, upside-down Government class still refuses to treat with the urgency it deserves.
They can find billions for geopolitical security, but women’s security is still treated like a side department with a rainbow lanyard, a strategy PDF, a campaign hashtag and a waiting list.
The Office for National Statistics estimated that 3.8 million people aged 16 and over experienced domestic abuse in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025. – That is 3.8 million people. The same ONS data shows 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men experienced domestic abuse in that year.
Read that again slowly, because numbers like that should not be allowed to become wallpaper.
Millions of people. Millions of lives. Millions of homes where “home” is not safety, it is surveillance, control, fear, sexual violence, financial strangulation, psychological warfare, threats, intimidation, and that sickening calculation victims make every day about whether today is the day it gets worse.
Then look at sexual violence.
Police recorded 209,079 sexual offences in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025, an 11% increase on the previous year.
Two hundred and nine thousand and seventy-nine.
And……. that is only what was recorded.
Anyone with even half a brain and one honest bone in their body knows sexual violence is under-reported. Rape is buried under shame, fear, trauma, disbelief, court delays, police delays and the government ignorance. Yet still, women are expected to be grateful for crumbs of support while billions are thrown elsewhere, as if money is suddenly an obedient little servant when politicians in suits decide the danger matters.
I am absolutely sick of it. I am sick of violence against women and girls being called an epidemic, then funded like an inconvenience.
I am sick of the same Government machine that can move money, weapons, loans, support packages, logistics and long-term commitments across borders, then winning an award for acting helpless when a woman needs somewhere safe to sleep tonight.
I am sick of hearing that domestic abuse is a priority from people who do not seem to understand that priority means movement, not mood music.
When I needed safety, I did not need another statement. I needed a door he could not get through. From 2 January 2025 to 19 March 2025, my life did not feel like a policy debate. It felt like bags by the door, panic under the skin, a phone that was never just a phone, a house that was never just a house, and a body that never really rested.
Eleven weeks – That is how long it was.
Eleven weeks of movement, decisions, fear and trying not to collapse while everyone around me used words like process, assessment, support, safety planning, risk, options.
Eleven weeks of leaning on my IDVA and ISVA so hard I do not know how they stayed upright under the weight of it all.
Eleven weeks of being technically somewhere, but not safely anywhere.
Ministers and Officials say, “You weren’t homeless,” because I had an address and I had keys. So I will remind you – the law does not define homelessness by appearance, it defines it by safety. If it is not reasonable for you to remain, if you are under threat, if you are living in fear, if your accommodation exists on paper but not in reality as a safe home, then the law recognises that you can be homeless.
That is the part MP’s do not like, because it ruins their tidy little categories. It means a woman can have a tenancy and still be homeless. She can look composed, wear make-up, answer emails, go to work, smile at strangers, and still be homeless because nowhere available to her is safe.
I had an address – I did not have a home – Eleven weeks, I was homeless. Not because I was sleeping on the street, but because nowhere I could go was safe.
That is why the fight for Georgia’s Law is on.
Not because I wanted my name attached to a campaign, not because I wanted to turn trauma into paperwork, not because I enjoy begging politicians to locate their spines. Georgia’s Law exists because there is a lethal gap between recognising risk and providing safety. Housing is still too often treated as admin when it should be treated as safeguarding.
A high-risk domestic abuse victim should not be processed like a routine housing applicant. A rape survivor should not be left navigating homelessness rules while her nervous system is still screaming. A woman being stalked, threatened or hunted should not be told, in effect, to wait until a suitable property appears, as if perpetrators pause politely for allocation systems.
Also there is something morally filthy about a system that can understand urgent threat in Ukraine but cannot consistently understand urgent threat in a woman’s own life.
That is what I mean when I say “our defences are not only military”.
Yes, fund national defence. Yes, make the UK safe. Yes, protect borders. Yes, understand foreign threats. Do not dare tell me defence stops there.
Defence is also stopping rape gangs in the UK.
Defence is refusing to let children be groomed and raped while authorities worry about optics, community tension, institutional embarrassment or political fallout.
Defence is fully funding investigations into child sexual exploitation and making sure no girl is ever again treated as disposable because her life is complicated, her background is messy, or the adults around her would rather look away.
Defence is rape crisis centres with enough money to answer the need.
Defence is ISVAs who are not drowning.
Defence is IDVAs who are not expected to carry the emotional weight of the state’s failure while being underpaid, overworked and still somehow expected to be miracle workers.
Defence is refuges that working women can actually access.
Defence is social housing that is not treated like a mythical creature.
Defence is safe relocation for high-risk women within days, not months.
Defence is telling a woman, “We know the risk, and we are moving now,” not “We know the risk, but unfortunately the system is complicated.”
I am tired of complicated being used as a hiding place for cowardice.
I am tired of “limited resources” being thrown at women who already have limited breath, limited sleep, limited trust and limited time before danger escalates.
I am tired of the Government finding a big voice for international security and a tiny voice for domestic terror.
Because …..domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Grooming gangs, Coercive control and Stalking are also terror. A woman sleeping with her shoes nearby because she may need to run is living under terror. A child being passed around by men while authorities miss, minimise or mishandle the warning signs is living under terror.
However because this terror is not always dressed in military uniform, because it often happens in homes, cars, bedrooms, hotels, flats, phones, messages, family courts, children’s services, police statements and housing offices, it gets softened into “complexity.”
No. I am not softening it.
Women are made homeless by abuse and then forced to prove the danger in language acceptable to a clipboard.
That is the truth, and while all this is happening, sexual abuse support charities are fighting for funding, domestic abuse services are stretched, refuges are limited, police and courts are overwhelmed, and social housing is nowhere near enough to meet the reality of need.
So when I see £21.8 billion attached to Ukraine, I do not read it as a dry figure. I read it as proof of concept.
The machinery can move, the state can commit, the Government can plan ahead, the purse can open, the urgency can be sustained.
The only question is whose safety is treated as worth it, and that is why this has hit me so hard. Survivors are not stupid, we see the contrast. We know what it sounds like when a politician says they are committed to ending violence against women and girls, then leaves the very services that keep women alive fighting for scraps.
We know what it feels like when the public claps for courage after a conviction, but disappears when the survivor still cannot sleep, still needs therapy, still needs housing, still needs financial stability, still needs protection, still needs a life rebuilt from rubble. The way your body keeps score while the system keeps minutes.
That is why I keep saying that a safe home is not a soft ask. It is a public safety requirement, and I refuse to accept that there is no money.
There is money for war – for overseas commitments – for hotels.
There is money for schemes, consultants, contracts, administrative layers, and all the mysterious little places public money seems to disappear while frontline services are told to be innovative.
Yet when women need refuge, when rape victims need therapy, when children need protection from grooming gangs, when high-risk survivors need immediate relocation, suddenly the country becomes very careful with its wallet.
Three Words : convenient – disgusting – familiar.
The question is not whether Britain can afford to protect women and children. The question is why it keeps choosing not to do it properly.
Fund our own defences – military.
Fund the defence of children from rape gangs.
Fund the defence of women from violent men.
Fund the defence of survivors from homelessness.
Fund the defence of rape victims from silence, delay and collapse.
Fund social housing.
Fund sexual abuse support charities.
Fund domestic abuse services.
Fund courts that do not leave survivors in limbo for years.
Fund emergency safeguarding-led relocation. (Georgia’s Law)
Do not tell me it cannot be done, because when Ukraine needed long-term commitment, the UK found language, money and machinery. I am no longer willing to stand politely underneath it.
A country that can commit up to £21.8 billion in total support to Ukraine can afford to make sure women fleeing domestic abuse and sexual violence are not left sleeping in fear.
A country that can pledge £3 billion a year in military support until 2030-31 can afford to stop rape crisis centres drowning.
A country that can talk about security abroad can afford to confront rape gangs at home with the full force of law, funding and political courage.
A country that can defend democracy overseas can afford to defend the bodily safety of girls and women here.
I am angry because this is not theoretical to me.
I am angry because I know what it is to have an address but no home, to be high risk and still waiting.
I am angry because I know how much survivors rely on underfunded specialists while politicians congratulate themselves for caring.
I am angry because the women who need safety tonight do not have time for another five-year plan.
I am angry because every statistic has a face, and some of those faces never made it to the next funding announcement.
The UK has committed up to £21.8 billion in total support to Ukraine while high-risk women here are still fighting for immediate safe housing.
That is not a headline – That is an indictment.
I am raging because it should shame every Government minister who has ever stood up and said women’s safety is a priority while leaving the systems that protect us underfunded, overstretched and moving far too slowly.
If there is money for war, there is money for women.
If there is money for foreign security, there is money for safety at home.
If there is money to defend Ukraine for as long as needed, there is money to defend victims and survivors here before another life is destroyed.
……. if that makes people uncomfortable, good.
It should, because I am done making this palatable.
References
GOV.UK (2026) UK support to Ukraine: factsheet. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-support-to-ukraine-factsheet/uk-support-to-ukraine-factsheet (Accessed: 12 June 2026).
House of Commons Library (2026) Detailed timeline of UK military assistance to Ukraine since February 2022. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9914/ (Accessed: 12 June 2026).
Office for National Statistics (2025) Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2025. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwalesoverview/november2025 (Accessed: 12 June 2026).
Office for National Statistics (2025) Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2025. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/sexualoffencesinenglandandwalesoverview/yearendingmarch2025 (Accessed: 12 June 2026).
Office for National Statistics (2025) Sexual offences prevalence and trends, England and Wales: year ending March 2025. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffencesprevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2025 (Accessed: 12 June 2026).
