Keir Starmer will block nationwide inquiry into baby grooming gangs as Tories bid to power Commons vote on the transfer TODAY
Keir Starmer is set to block a national inquiry into child grooming gangs as the Tories force a vote on the move today.
The PM has ordered his MPs to oppose an amendment tabled by Kemi Badenoch that would trigger a new official probe.
With Labour holding a massive majority in the House, it means the bid is almost certain to fail.
Sir Keir – who has been fending off an extraordinary social media attack on the issue from US billionaire Elon Musk – accused the Conservatives of ‘shocking’ tactics by tagging the measure on to the wider Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill.
‘I would implore any right-thinking Tory MP to vote for the Bill because this would kill the Bill, this would kill the legislation,’ he told the Mirror.
The issue is likely to come up when the leaders clash at the first PMQs session since the Christmas break at noon, before the expected vote this evening.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the decision showed ‘total moral cowardice’.
Keir Starmer is set to block a national inquiry into child grooming gangs as the Tories force a vote on the move today
The PM has ordered his MPs to oppose an amendment tabled by Kemi Badenoch that would trigger a new official probe
‘The victims of these heinous child rape gangs deserve honesty, and they deserve the truth,’ he said.
Mr Philp said previous inquiries had failed to get to the bottom of the issue.
‘Labour’s decision risks perpetuating the cover-up of the rape gangs,’ he said.
‘There will be many Labour MPs in constituencies where these awful crimes took place and where victims still seek justice. They now need to think long and hard about which side of history they want to be on.’
The scandal involved the rape and sexual abuse of thousands of white girls by gangs of predominantly Pakistani-origin men.
Campaigners against child sex abuse also urged the Prime Minister to reconsider.
Victims campaigner Dame Jasvinder Sanghera said she ‘fully supported’ a public inquiry – and warned that rape and abuse of young girls by gangs of men was still continuing.
‘Let’s be clear, this is still happening,’ she told Times Radio. ‘This isn’t something that used to happen. This is still happening today. I’m sure the perpetrators of this kind of abuse will look for different ways of manipulating the system so we have to look at this as a whole and have a broader conversation.’
Dame Jasvinder said the government’s approach to multiculturalism still appeared to be to ‘minimise the risk of offending communities as opposed to actually dealing with the very problem’.
But on a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson branded the Tory approach ‘sickening’.
She told Times Radio: ‘We are looking right across the recommendations that Alexis Jay set out and there are crucial recommendations from the review that she carried out.
‘That’s why today we are setting out legislation that addresses many of the wider challenges that we see right across our system. It’s why the Home Secretary announced in the House of Commons the action that we are taking.
‘So we are wasting no time in legislating to keep children safe. The question for the Conservatives today is why they are intent on blocking this landmark piece of child protection legislation that would keep the very children safe that they claim they are concerned about.’
She added: ‘They come along today as we set out legislation to protect the very children they claim to care about and they intend to block it and kill it stone dead.
‘It is absolutely sickening.’
The PM’s official spokesman said further inquiries were unnecessary, saying Sir Keir was ‘completely focused on’ tackling sexual abuse.
The head of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse yesterday said ‘the time has passed’ for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs and that the row is ‘distracting from the issues’.
Professor Alexis Jay said ‘we’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions’ as she called for action.
But she acknowledged that the government’s decision to finally respond to her report this week was triggered by the media focus on demands for a fresh inquiry.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Monday that she is implementing three of the report’s 20 recommendations, including placing a mandatory duty on those working with children to report suspected abuse.
The issue is likely to come up when the leaders clash at the first PMQs session since the Christmas break at noon, before the expected vote this evening. Pictured, the House sitting in December
Professor Jay said the row ‘may well have given it some kind of impetus to move forward’.
The shadow justice secretary yesterday suggested that a future Conservative government could try to curb migration from countries with ‘alien cultures’, including Pakistan.
He told the BBC that arrivals from some countries had ‘medieval’ attitudes towards women.
Asked if he was saying immigration policy should be changed to stop people with such attitudes from coming to the UK, he said: ‘I think that we have to be very careful about who is coming into this country, the scale and pace of that immigration so that we can have a much more successful integration policy than we have today.’
