Wishart calls for new laws to support victims of domestic abuse

Shetland MSP Beatrice Wishart.

Shetland’s MSP has highlighted the need for new laws to ensure people are not forced to give up their family home to escape an abuser. 

Beatrice Wishart raised her calls in the “Making Scotland Equally Safe” debate in parliament last week.

She said: “Domestic abuse is a hideous, controlling and often life-threatening crime. This year, lockdown and school closures meant that the availability of safe spaces was massively reduced.

“Domestic abuse is also a major cause of women’s homelessness in Scotland. Women have had to flee their homes in the middle of the night, scooping up children out of their beds, to escape an abusive partner by giving up everything else.

“My party has long sought new legal orders to help to stop that happening, and I am glad that legislative moves are now being made. Staying in the family home should not mean staying with an abuser.”