Men who commit crimes motivated by a hatred of women will get tougher sentences under plans brought forward by Labour.
Under new proposals, the Government will make attacks motivated by hatred of women ‘aggravated offences’, which carry sentences of up to two years in prison.
Non-aggravated common assault, by comparison, carries a maximum penalty of six months’ imprisonment.
Those targeting people over their sexuality, gender identity or disability will face the same penalties.
In a letter detailing the amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, Lords ministers wrote that the changes will ‘ensure that tackling misogyny is part of the government’s approach to tackling hate crime’.
At present, while crimes committed with hostility can see sentences given an ‘uplift’, introducing them as aggravations gives them additional status on a charge, which comes with a higher maximum sentence.
Race and religion are already treated as individually defined aggravations on charges such as disorderly behaviour, stalking and criminal damage.
Labour’s plans to increase sentences for hate crimes were first revealed by The Mail on Sunday when the party was in opposition.
Attacking someone on the basis of their sex will become an aggravated offence under new plans brought forward by Labour
The amendment was first proposed by MP Rachel Taylor (pictured) – then bolstered by the government to include sex as an aggravating factor
The amendment was first introduced to MP Rachel Taylor, then the Minister for Policing and Crime, who proposed making disability, sexuality and gender identity aggravating factors.
She told the BBC she was ‘absolutely delighted’ to see proposed for inclusion in the Bill, citing figures suggesting more than 30,000 hate crimes targeting those categories had been recorded by police between March 2024 and 2025.
But the Government has gone further than Ms Taylor had asked by formally including sex as an aggravating factor in its proposals.
Violence against women and girls accounts for just under 20 per cent of all crime in England and Wales, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The NPCC also says crimes directed at women and girls are on the rise, with at least one in every 12 women expected to fall victim each year.
Schools are concerned about a rise in misogynistic comments made by young boys exposed to negative content online such as proponents of the ‘incel’ (involuntary celibate) movement and Andrew Tate.
The issue of misogyny was brought to the fore by the Netflix drama Adolescence, which the Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as ‘hard to watch’ because of the hard conversations it prompted with his children.
Anti-abuse charity Galop hailed the Government’s amendment as a ‘landmark moment for hate crime equality’.
Simon Blake, of gay and trans rights group Stonewall, said he welcomed the proposals at a time when many in the LGBT+ community are feeling ‘increasingly under threat’.
Other amendments proposed by the Government to the Crime and Policing Bill include the first steps in dismantling the much-derided non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) that critics said were used to suppress free speech.