Promising to protect Theresa May’s legacy isn’t really a feature of this Conservative leadership contest. That’s not just because so many of the candidates disagree about the type of Conservatism that they the outgoing Prime Minister espoused, but because she doesn’t really have much of a legacy to protect.
But one of the few reforms that May did introduce is under threat as a result of the upheaval in the party. The Domestic Abuse Bill is currently in draft form, despite there being apparently widespread support for its policies in parliament. Its publication in draft was delayed a number of times ‘because of Brexit’, which is the sort of excuse that any new Prime Minister could make as they delay it for another few years, too.
Domestic abuse charity Safe Lives is asking each of the 10 candidates to promise that they will continue the Bill if they become Prime Minister, and is arguing that the cost of not doing so is too great: the government’s own figures show that domestic abuse costs around £66 billion a year, with the police receiving 100 calls an hour relating to domestic abuse, and the health impact of this crime costs the NHS £2.3
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