Seema Malhotra MP for Feltham and Heston has been appointed the first shadow minister for preventing violence against women and girls.

Labour party leader Ed Miliband appointed Ms Malhotra to the post which will see her look into issues including sexual violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), trafficking and prostitution.

The announcement came from the Labour party camp yesterday (25).

Ms Malhotra said: “It is significant that Labour has made this issue such a priority and I look forward to working with colleagues to try and make a real difference to women who have experienced huge trauma in their lives.

“The level of violence against women in Britain and indeed the world is shocking and too little is being done to prevent these crimes, support the victims and bring the perpetrators to justice.

"I will be looking to change this and look forward to working with Ed and Yvette to make sure a Labour Government offers a real alternative to women and children trapped in cycles of violence.”

Her role will involve working on the Women's Safety Commission developing proposals for new laws which will include: reforms to the criminal justice system; measures to improve women's safety and prevention of violence against women and girls.

Mr Miliband said he was delighted Seema had agreed to take on the role, adding her appointment indicated "the importance a Labour government will place on tackling violence against women and girls."

“Yvette has rightly put this at the heart of her vision for the Home Office and I look forward to continuing working with her and Seema to ensure a Labour government can make a real difference to the lives of the victims of these terrible crimes.”

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said: “Seema will be a huge asset to the Shadow Home Affairs team.

"She has always been a champion of women’s equality – from her campaigns promoting the work of women in business, to her hugely successful Presidency of the Fabian’s Women’s Network, which has done so much to improve representation of women and ethnic minorities in politics and public life.

"I know she will bring all her experience and energy to lead our important work developing a strong policy platform to tackle violence against women and girls.”

Statistics on violence against women and girls:

- 89% of the victims of intense, prolonged domestic abuse are women

- The ONS survey last year recorded 473,000 victims of sexual offences. 404,000 of these were women

- It is estimated that 85,000 women were raped last year and 12,000 men were raped

- 1 in 5 women have been victims on a sexual offence since the age of 16

- 12.9million incidents of domestic violence were recorded against women last year, compared to 2.5million against men