Starmer has given me hope in our fight for women's safety

Three years ago, my niece, Zara Aleena, was murdered on her way home from a night out in east London by a high-risk offender who should have been in prison.

- FARAH NAZ

Her brutal murder could have been prevented were it not for the failures of police, prison and probation services that resulted in the catastrophic early release of a man whose risk to the public was inaccurately assessed.

Since then, alongside the families of other murdered women, I have campaigned against the violence perpetrated against women and girls, against the systems that fail women and girls - and against a culture that tolerates this violence.

It is not often that families like ours are invited into the heart of government, but a week ago we were invited to No 10, bringing with us the grief of our families and the hope that no other family would have to endure what we have.

I stood alongside Jebina Islam, the sister of Sabina Nessa (a murdered woman), and Ayse Hussein, cousin of Jan Mustafa (a murdered woman), all of us having been invited by the prime minister to meet face to face - not as campaigners, but as women carrying the lived reality of loss - and with the determination to turn that loss into change.

This crucial meeting with the prime minister came just a week after a vigil for Zara, which was attended by the minister for victims and violence against women and girls, Alex Davies-Jones, and the health secretary Wes Streeting.