Tory push for grooming inquiry vote ‘a shocking tactic’, Starmer warns
Sir Keir Starmer has warned Conservative MPs not to back a Commons push for a new nationwide child grooming investigation, as it prioritises “the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children”.
The Prime Minister said that Kemi Badenoch’s attempt to garner parliamentary support for a new inquiry, in the form of an amendment to a Bill aimed at bolstering the safety of children, was a “shocking tactic”.
Sir Keir’s Government has faced a slew of attacks from X and Tesla owner Elon Musk in recent days after Home Office minister Jess Phillips declined a request for a nationally led inquiry in Oldham.
“Rape genocide apologist”
Ms Phillips said she faced an increased risk to her safety since Mr Musk called her a “rape genocide apologist”, and the Prime Minister has signalled the businessman crossed a line with his criticism and was spreading misinformation.
The Tories have joined calls by Mr Musk for a new UK-wide inquiry into child sexual abuse, despite a wide-ranging independent probe having concluded its work in 2022.
On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch’s party will bring forward an amendment to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is expected to call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.
“It’s a shocking tactic, completely short-sighted,” the Prime Minister said in his first sit-down interview of the year with the Mirror newspaper.
He added: “I would implore any right-thinking Tory MP to vote for the Bill because this would kill the Bill, this would kill the legislation.”
The amendment is unlikely to be supported by a majority in the Commons, as the Government wants to roll out the recommendations of the investigation led by Professor Alexis Jay rather than open a new inquiry.
The non-binding amendment also calls for the Commons to halt the progress of the Bill, which includes measures aimed at bolstering safeguarding for children.
Measures
The Bill includes measures that will see parents no longer have an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or suspected of being at risk of significant harm.
Sara Sharif, 10, was pulled out of school just months before she was murdered by her father and stepmother.
Homeschooling allowed her abuse to carry on “beyond the gaze of the authorities”, the judge sentencing her killers warned in December.
Sir Keir told the Mirror: “No MP should be voting down children’s safeguarding measures. It’s shocking they are even thinking about this as a tactic. It’s the elevation of the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children.”
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien claimed the Tories were giving MPs the “first chance to vote to give victims answers and justice”.
Professor Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has said “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs.
On Monday, Ms Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Professor Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.
Andrew Norfolk, the Times newspaper reporter who exposed the Rotherham grooming gang scandal which led to Prof Jay’s report, told his former employer he did not think another investigation would help.
The retired journalist also sought to “put the record straight” on Sir Keir’s work as England and Wales’ chief prosecutor, insisting the PM “changed the rules to make more prosecutions possible”.
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I am watching a bloke (musk) that pushes outright lies and conspiracies, platforms hate speech, platforms white supremacy, platforms misogyny in all its nasty forms, protects his purchase in trump who is on the hook for sexual abuse and convicted felon, that musk lobbed a steaming pile of lies and hate at people that have done more than any Tory and the Tory party ran with it because Johnson got rid of any decent cons. And Johnson said enquiries (including ones into abuse) is “Malarkey” and “spaffing money up the wall”, and that Tory party supported him. We now have… Read more »
‘On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch’s party will bring forward an amendment to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is expected to call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.
We’ve been here before. Surely it’d be more constructive and practically effective simply to implement the recommendations made by Professor Jay in her report on this issue, several years ago now. None of them have as yet been put into effect.
It will kill existing bills going through to protect. It is also against the advice of the experts including Jay. The cons are doing musks work whilst ignoring what Starmer and Phillips have done to improve the rate of convictions, orders of magnitude more that Baddenoch and her party have ever done. It stinks. 14 years they did sod all. The problem is also that musk dribbles his bile and the Cons and right wing press in the UK go all gooey eyed and roll over. The Cons are a bought and paid for party now. Jenrick is now off… Read more »
Prof Jay has done the hard yards. Politicians now need to focus on the actions recommended in her reports.
I’m not across the reasons for the delay and I believe that Professor Jay focused principally on the abuse of young girls in Rotherham; but the main thing for me is that she took no less than seven years to produce her report with its twenty recommendations.
If the government commissions yet another review when the Jay recommendations haven’t been implemented, it could well be the next decade before anything happens.
Surely the best way forward would be to implement the Jay recommendations while also initiating a public inquiry into how men of a certain ethnicity were not investigated and prosecuted in a timely manner across the UK. Its a national issue. . Why were the parents of children being exploited arrested for complaining while the paedophile rapists operated with impunity? Why did the state look the other way? Have the men been deported? Etc etc. so many unanswered questions
Given it was the Tory government who covered up sexual abuse for 16 years, I think Mr Starmer should call their bluff and go all out on child sexual offenders.
Half of Westminster would be imprisoned, the disgusting Royal family would be behind bars, and the BBC would come to an end.
The ones screaming the most, should have their laptops checked first.
Makes you wonder who they are helping, trying to collapse legislation. It’s as if the Tories and Musk have a history if backing abusers. Oh they do of course.
the gop in the US are good at this. They crash legislation for a whim of their leader, trump, they do it out of spite to the dems and decency. They held up funding to Ukraine for weeks cos trump said so. The same gameplay here from our bought and paid for opposition. They are not doing anything for well being, it is purely because Starmer (and they did sod all when in power). This is all they are now. Starmer today at PMQ asked Badenoch for evidence of her concerns in the HoC here pre Musk attack (Hansard search… Read more »
ARTD now off on one for a topical question refused he thinks musk will pat him on the head for. Sit up, beg, there is a good little doggy.
Hey, Mr Millar, are you in charge or do you endorse ARTD? Come on, you wave your creds about, lets see it in action.
Farij says he will carry out an inquiry. He is attempting to run a parallel government and an insurgency directly against the democratic will of the people and the Tories have to track what he is doing to stay in the battle for supremacy of the cess pit.