SWINDON MP Julia Drown believes too many rape trials fail because clever defence lawyers are able to persuade juries that the victim gave consent to sex.

Ms Drown will present a bill to the House of Commons next week that suggests shifting the emphasis from the victim to the defendant.

She says legislative changes are needed to improve drastically on the current 91 per cent of rape cases that fail to end in a conviction.

The South Swindon MP claims too many acquittals are secured on the fragile claim that the victim consented to sex a fact that is difficult to disprove.

She also believes the sexual history of the defendant is also unnecessarily dragged up before the courts, when the emphasis should be focused more strongly on the motives of the defendant.

Ms Drown said: "We need to adopt the Canadian model, where if consent is questioned in a case, the defendant must prove that they took every reasonable step to ensure consent was given.

"It is a very difficult area, but too often at the moment, lawyers are convincing juries that 'no' somehow means 'yes'.

"They often back up their claims by giving evidence about the sexual history of the victim, but it just isn't relevant. Cases should be judged on their individual merits."

The Labour MP, who has regularly championed women's issues since she was first elected in 1997, believes such a low conviction rate only makes it harder to persuade more rape victims to report the crime to the police.

She added: "When people think of rape, they often think of the ones where consent is rarely an issue the attacks in dark alleyways by complete strangers.

"But most rapes are date rapes or rape by people you know. In those cases, consent can be easily questioned.

"But we have to get away from this idea that just because you've been married for 20 years or because you've kissed a man at a club doesn't mean consent to sex is automatic."