THE Lords were urged today to make non-fatal strangulation a specific crime in the Domestic Abuse Bill, which is making its passage through Parliament.

The push to make it a specific offence is being led by former victims’ commissioner Baroness Newlove, a Tory peer who is campaigning for the change via an amendment, which has cross-party support, as the Bill returned to the Lords.

She told peers it would be “an unforgivable missed opportunity” if the Bill did not address the issue of strangulation and suffocation.