After Sir Keir Starmer completed an almighty U-turn to hold a national rape gangs inquiry, GB News looks at all of the times Labour bigwigs blasted calls to investigate one of Britain’s darkest scandals.
Labour MPs voted in their droves to reject Tory efforts to force an inquiry, with 350 blocking an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill.
Even Labour MPs from the towns most impacted by the rape gangs scandal voted against the proposed national inquiry.
Keighley’s Tory MP Robbie Moore heaped pressure on Labour’s Bradford MPs, who voted against or abstained on the amendment, after warning the scale of child sexual abuse in the city could “dwarf that of Rotherham”.
Despite a gaggle of Labour MPs eventually breaking ranks to demand a national probe, not one defied the Prime Minister’s orders by backing the amendment.
However, significant fury has been reserved for the high-profile Labour figures who unequivocally rejected calls for a national grooming gangs inquiry.
Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper
GETTY
During a GB News grilling last month, the Home Secretary yet again rejected calls for a national inquiry.
After admitting that the gangs operating in Britain committed “appalling” and “some of the most vile crimes that we are talking about”, Yvette Cooper claimed that the Government has “already had one”.
She added: “We’ve already had, obviously, one national inquiry. We’ve already had the investigations in place, but what we need to do is make sure that we’ve got the swift action.
“I will always look at whatever action is needed to make sure that we can keep children and young people safe.
“That’s why we’re waiting for the Louise Casey audit, but it’s also why we need the stronger laws and the stronger police investigations too.”
Jess Phillips
Jess Phillips suggested that local inquiries would ‘go further’ than the five already announcedPA
Meanwhile, the Safeguarding Minister also admitted that the grooming gangs scandal had been the victim of a “cover-up” but dismissed calls for a national inquiry.
During a heated exchange in the House of Commons with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp in April, Jess Phillips said: “I don’t need to read out the things that were found in other local inquiries to know because I speak to the victims.
“I spoke to some of the victims of grooming gangs this morning. I’ll speak to some more tomorrow. I have spoken to them from Oxford, from Birmingham, from Rochdale, from Rotherham, from Oldham.
“I know exactly the issue of the cover-up, as does everyone already, because of the many local inquiries that told us that this happened, and the national inquiry that has told us that there were cover-ups.
“What we must focus on is to make sure – like what happened in Telford – that there is a local process of accountability that actually changes things on the ground. That is what I’ll do.”
Phillips had also rejected calls for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham in January and earlier this month was forced to apologise after Labour broke its promise to publish plans for inquiries into Britain’s rape gangs scandal.
David Lammy
Foreign Secretary David LammyPA
David Lammy might have toned down the rhetoric in his attacks on Donald Trump but his unearthed comments about predominantly Pakistani rape gangs continue to follow him through his totemic rise from backbench Labour MP to Foreign Secretary.
Around the same time as he compared Brexiteers to Nazis, Lammy asked Wes Streeting about the ongoing commentary about rape gangs.
He said: “Does he deplore and condemn the way in which this most minority of sinners who exist in every single ethnic group on the planet is being extrapolated to condemn an entire community?
“That is precisely what we are trying to get to grips with, through this important definition, to challenge those who take a terrible act by a small group of people and extend it to an entire ethnic group.”
Lammy separately warned against “pandering to the far-right” after then-Home Secretary Sir Sajid Javid welcomed the sentencing of 20 men.
The men came from the Huddersfield area and were convicted of raping girls as young as 11.
At the time, Javid said: “These sick Asian paedophiles are finally justice. I want to commend the bravery of the victims.
“For too long, they were ignored. Not on my watch.”
However, a furious Lammy told The Guardian: “Sajid Javid has brought a great office of state into disrepute.
“By singling out ‘Asians’ he not only panders to the far-right but increases the risk of violence and abuse against minorities across the country.”
Lammy later accused Musk of “peddling mistruth” over the predominantly Pakistani grooming gangs.
The Foreign Secretary added: “And some of what we’ve seen online is peddling mistruth, is creating bad faith, is very unfair to those victims, and I pray in aid the words of Alexis Jay in the last few days, which concentrates the minds on her recommendations, on the victims that sit behind this, and getting on with implementing her inquiry.”
Lucy Powell
Labour’s Lucy Powell made the comments on Radio 4
PA
The Leader of the House of Commons was forced to issue a grovelling apology after locking horns with Reform UK activist Tim Montgomerie earlier this year.
Powell appeared to describe Montgomerie’s question about whether she had watched Channel 4’s documentary on the scandal as “dog-whistle”, adding: “We want to blow that little trumpet now do we.”
Just days later, the Labour Minister said she regarded child exploitation and grooming with the “utmost seriousness”.
Powell said: “I was challenging the political point scoring around it, not the issue itself. As a constituency MP I’ve dealt with horrendous cases.”
Despite biting at Montgomerie’s remarks, Labour MPs had been keen to admit to watching hit Netflix drama Adolescence, which focused on the horrific rise of misogynistic views among young men and teenage boys.
Bridget Phillipson
Bridget Phillipson
PA
The Education Secretary issued her most defiant criticisms of calls for a national grooming gangs inquiry when Tories attempted to amend her Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill.
Phillipson, who is also Starmer’s Equalities chief, accused the Conservatives of being “bandwagon jumpers” who “don’t care about children”.
She said: “The measures that I’m setting out today and the legislation in many ways go further because it puts a requirement on all councils to have teams working to keep children safe.
“And the bandwagon jumpers that have come along in recent days, they don’t care about children, they don’t care about making sure that we stop this and we take action. They had years to do it and they didn’t do it.”
Wes Streeting
Wes StreetingGetty
The Health Secretary has previously said he has “no difficulty or qualms” calling out the “sickening” crimes of sexual abuse gangs but then took aim at those calling for a national inquiry by accusing them of inflaming tensions.
In an interview with The Guardian in January, the Ilford North MP warned: “At the same time, there are people in my community who have either Pakistani heritage or look different, who are now more fearful today than they were before.”
Streeting also appeared to go further in his condemnation of Elon Musk, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch.
He added: “Victims’ voices have been completely marginalised, and I think that’s a disgrace.
“If Kemi Badenoch is in any doubt whatsoever about where irresponsible and coarse public discourse can lead on this issue, look on the other side of the world, in Christchurch, New Zealand, where someone walked into a mosque and killed innocent Muslims stone cold dead with a gun whose magazine had inscribed on it ‘for Rotherham’.
“We have to be extremely clear about the failings, the nature of it, and not allow political correctness, fear of stating the truth as it is to fail victims, as has happened before. We must also make sure that entire communities are not tarred with the same brush.”
Lisa Nandy
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy
PA
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy initially rejected calls for a grooming gangs inquiry, instead hailing the previous Jay Inquiry for taking evidence from thousands of victims.
“That inquiry found what every inquiry has found, that young girls weren’t believed because they were young, they were female, and they were working-class, and that the systems that were supposed to protect them protected themselves instead of protecting those brave young victims,” Nandy said.
The Wigan MP added: “The reason I think that people have heard from us that there may at some point in the future be another inquiry is because child abuse by its very nature is hidden, it’s secretive, and, at various points, I’m sure that more will come out about the scandals that we’ve heard.”
Nandy was later forced to insist that Starmer’s Government was not watering down its grooming gangs commitment.
Asked if it was true to suggest ministers were watering down their plans after the lack of update on the plans, the Culture Secretary told Times Radio: “No, it’s not the truth.
“The truth is that we are listening to victims and authorities around the country about the need to give them the right tools to tackle it, this very pernicious problem, in their own areas.
“We believe that decisions are best made by those with skin in the game in their own communities, people who live in those communities, who understand what is happening there.”
Sir Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan
PA
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan was involved in a heated City Hall exchange back in January after he refused to confirm if grooming gangs were operating in the capital.
When pressed by City Hall Conservative leader Susan Hall, Khan repeatedly replied: “Can she define what she means by that?”
Reacting to the spat, Hall told GB News: “Everyone across this country knows what the grooming gangs are, and I don’t believe Khan for one minute when he says it’s unclear.
“Young girls were hopelessly abused, and may yet still be suffering abuse if these gangs continue to operate. This isn’t about politics – we need answers, and we need them now.
“Pathetically shirking his responsibilities is not going to cut it. Khan dodged the questions today, he needs to come to the assembly and answer them – and put the concerns of Londoners at ease.”
An additional push to force an inquiry was rejected after Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green London Assembly Members voted down a Tory proposal to fund a grooming gangs probe in the capital just a few weeks later.
Out of the assembly’s 25 members, all eight Conservatives and Reform UK’s lone representative voted for the proposal.
Dan Carden
Labour MP Dan Carden has become the first to break ranks and publicly call for a national inquiry into grooming gangsPARLIAMENT TV
Blue Labour MP Dan Carden became the first Labour MP to defy Starmer by calling for a national inquiry.
Just days after Starmer’s “far-right” remark sparked outrage, the Liverpool Walton MP told the Liverpool Echo: “The Prime Minister must use the full power of the state to deliver justice.
“It must continue to unflinchingly pursue the perpetrators and bring to account those in positions of authority who turned a blind eye, failed to act, or gave political cover to the gangs.”
The ex-Shadow International Development Minister later told GB News that he “backs an inquiry or other action from the state”.
Carden also rejected the suggestion that demanding an inquiry was merely enabling the “far right”.
He added: “This is not an obsession of the far-right. I am speaking out because over the decades there have been far too few Labour voices expressing clear disgust and outrage at these heinous crimes, their cover-up and the lack of action.”
Paul Waugh
Paul Waugh
GB NEWS
Rochdale MP Paul Waugh later joined Carden in demanding a grooming gangs inquiry if “that’s what victims want”.
Waugh, who entered the House of Commons after a challenging showdown with firebreand pro-Gaza MP George Galloway, told the BBC: “I’m not against a national enquiry but it has got to have some key caveats.
“First, is it supported by victims because they are the people who have told their stories and it took a lot of bravery to tell those stories?”
“They fought for justice for many years, are they going to have to re-experience their trauma every time they explain this? They have done this time and time again.”
Sarah Champion
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion has backed a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandalPA
“Nothing less than a national inquiry into the failings of those in authority to both prevent, and be accountable for their failings, in relation to grooming gangs will restore the faith in our safeguarding systems,” the MP for Rotherham said back in January.
Champion, who has been campaigning on child protection for over a decade, said child sexual abuse is “endemic” in the UK and must be “a national priority”.
She added: “Having worked widely with victims and survivors, and front-line professionals, I have long believed that we need to fully understand the nature of this crime and the failures in the response of public bodies if we are to truly protect children.”
Rotherham was one of the worst impacted areas from the grooming gangs scandal, with girls as young as eleven being raped and trafficked by men of predominantly Pakistani descent between 1997 and 2013.
Jonathan Hinder
Hinder joined Christopher Hope on GB News GB NEWS
A rising star from Labour’s new fleet of Red Wall MPs also joined calls for direct action on grooming gangs.
Jonathan Hinder, who won his seat of Pendle & Clitheroe by just 902 votes, sat down with GB News to discuss the scandal just last week.
Speaking to the People’s Channel, Hinder told Chopper’s Political Podcast: “We need a national reckoning on this.
“And I would say that we should be seriously thinking about whether a national inquiry is required.”
Hinder, who joins Carden as a leading member of the increasingly influential Blue Labour group, added: “It is the idea that things have been covered up because of cultural sensitivities. We cannot have that. If we want to have trust [in law and order].
“It undermines the kind of cohesive communities that we want. So we need to ensure that those who are responsible are held to account. and really encouraged that the police are making really good progress in terms of the arrests and prosecutions.
“That is really good. But in terms of the system, in terms of the councils and police officers as well that’s what needs to be looked at.”
Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham has been re-elected as the mayor of Greater Manchester, picking up 63.4 per cent of the votePA
The Greater Manchester Mayor was in lock-step with ex-Labour MP Khalid Mahmood when he called for a wider grooming gangs probe in January.
Despite his call being rejected by Nandy, Burnham demanded a “limited national inquiry” that draws on previously commissioned reviews.
Burnham, who is considered a potential successor to Starmer, added: “There’s a difference at a local level and a statutory public inquiry.
“There will always be limitations with what you can do with a local review. The review team could not compel someone to speak to them.”
So, what’s happening now?
Sir Keir Starmer
PA
The Prime Minister has ordered a full-scale national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal ahead of the release of Baroness Casey’s locally-led reviews next week.
Starmer said that the inquiry will be statutory, which means that it will have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and is independent of Government.
It is understood that the probe will coordinate the other local inquiries which are already underway.
The inquiry will be similar in its set-up to the Post Office Horizon scandal, which has seen executives and ministers grilled in front of TV cameras.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to Canada, Starmer said: “I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.
“I asked her to do that job to double-check on this. She has done that job for me, and having read her report, I respect her in any event. I shall now implement her recommendations.”
