Melanie Brown has urged the Government to increase the funding for domestic abuse charities as she complained that “talking” about the issue is not the way to fix the problem.
The Spice Girls star, 49, who is a patron of Women’s Aid, campaigns with the charity on domestic abuse issues.
She has been outspoken about being in an allegedly abusive relationship, which she claims left her without access to money or a support network.
At the World Economic Forum, Brown recalled that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer mentioned her during a speech to Parliament, and added: “But it’s not just about talking about it.
“It is (about) getting the funding because the government, they just allocate a little bit of money each year, but they end up spending millions (of pounds) because of the police service, because of the fact that they have to have a safe house.
“They end up spending so much money anyway, if they just set it aside and allocate it properly, and go to a charity with a foundation (in domestic abuse)… the money goes direct to the survivor, and they actually get the benefits from it.”
The Leeds-born singer added that “when you’ve been abused, you need a different kind of care and understanding”, and she said “when it comes to abuse, there’s nothing still”, compared with other issues such as alcoholism.
Brown has regularly called for awareness of the needs of survivors of domestic abuse, including better support through the health service and the court system.
She said: “If I wanted to report it and deal with the justice system, I’m fighting a losing battle because the judges are not educated. I have to sit next to my perpetrator, and how am I going to feel?
“I’m going to be stumbling, I’m going to be sweating, I’m going to have anxiety. I never want to see this person again as long as I live.
“But dealing with the word abuse, it leaves us women completely broken and shattered. A lot of women end up (dying by) suicide, or they end up staying, and if they stay, it’s a death sentence.”
When asked for her message to people, she said: “We have to stop abuse. It’s a woman’s problem, and us as women, it’s down to us to stop it, and so let’s get together and start fighting this, because it’s not going to stop.”
Brown became an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women.
In 2023 she told Sir Keir to make tackling domestic violence one of his “national missions” before he moved into No 10, while sitting alongside the Labour leader at a Women’s Aid panel.
She has also previously spoken at a Conservative Party conference about the issue.
According to charity Refuge, the largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK, one in four women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime.
They said, on average, police in the UK receive calls for help relating to domestic abuse every 30 seconds.
In September, the Government announced that it will ensure “calls for help are treated with the urgency needed and victims get the specialist support they need straight away” under Raneem’s Law.
In 2018, Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem were murdered by Raneem’s ex-partner.
An inquest found that on the night they were killed, Ms Oudeh had called police four times to register concerns for her safety, and the force had previously responded to 10 domestic abuse incidents linked to the case.
