WATCH: Angela Rayner says Sarah Everard vigil should go ahead safely

Labour’s Angela Rayner has declared that “women’s voices cannot be silenced” and said she hopes that the Reclaim These Streets vigil set to take place on Saturday “can go ahead in a Covid-safe way”.

The Metropolitan Police has told women organising a Reclaim The Streets vigil in Clapham on Saturday that their gathering would be unlawful under coronavirus laws, but lawyers and MPs have disagreed.

Having raised over £30,000 on Thursday, the organisers are going to the High Court in the hope that it will be able to rule on the issue today and allow the socially-distanced Clapham event to be held.

“Women’s voices should not be silenced. There has been an outcry, an outpouring, of the long-term issues that women and girls face in this country,” the deputy leader and party chair said today.

“That’s that fear of not being able to go out. That fear of being attacked. Domestic violence has increased. Women’s voices must be heard.

“I hope that we can come to a solution where the protest can go ahead in a Covid-safe way, that we can work with the police to make sure that happens. Because women’s voices cannot be silenced.”

Rayner was speaking before it was confirmed that the body found during the search for Sarah Everard, who went missing last week, is hers. A serving police officer has been arrested on suspicion of murder.