UK POLITCIANS HAVE overwhelmingly rejected a bid by the Tories to push for another national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government’s draft child protection legislation cleared its first Commons hurdle this evening following a bitter Prime Minister’s Questions in which Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said failing to back a probe would fuel concerns about a “cover-up”.
The Conservatives had tabled the motion to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill demanding a new national inquiry into gangs which, if approved, would have prevented the legislation from making progress.
Starmer hit out at the Tory leader earlier on Wednesday over “lies and misinformation, and slinging of mud” which did not help victims of child sexual abuse.
He had urged Badenoch to drop her “wrecking amendment” to the Government’s wide-ranging Bill, which includes measures to protect vulnerable children such as tougher rules on home-schooling as well as changes to academies and private school regulation.
Starmer said a further inquiry could delay action on tackling child sexual abuse, pointing out that recommendations from a seven-year probe which reported in 2022 had not yet been implemented.
Following debate, MPs voted to reject the motion by 364 votes to 111, majority 253.
Supporters of the amendment included 101 Conservatives, five Reform UK, two DUP, the TUV’s Jim Allister, UUP MP Robin Swann and Independent Alex Easton, and no Labour MPs.
The Labour government’s Bill will undergo further scrutiny at a later date.
The issue has become a political storm after X owner Elon Musk used his social media platform to launch a barrage of attacks on Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
In response to Labour’s opposition to calls for a national inquiry, Musk called Starmer “Starmtrooper” and accused him of trying to cover up “terrible things”.
In a heated parliamentary debate before the vote, Nigel Farage suggested his Reform UK party, which has five MPs, will fund an inquiry into child sexual abuse if the Government fails to do so, arguing that people “need to know the truth about this great evil that has happened in our culture.”
Labour MP Nadia Whittome accused both Reform and Conservative leaderships of “marching to the beat of Elon Musk’s drum” and “plainly weaponising the pain and the trauma of victims for their own political ends”.
“When you say that child sexual and exploitation is the result of alien cultures, or a multiculturalism project that has failed, you mask the reality, which is that child sexual abuse and exploitation is happening in every area of this country, perpetrated by members of every social class, every race and every religion,” she said.
Speaking to broadcasters on Wednesday afternoon, education minister Stephen Morgan accused the Tories of “political game-playing” with the motion.
Following the vote, a Labour spokesperson said: “The Conservatives attempted to block this Government’s plans to keep the most vulnerable children in our country safe from harm, after spending years failing to implement Professor Jay’s recommendations.
“Our measures protect children from harm, beef up inspections of illegal schools, and will mean that abusive parents can’t keep their children out of school… Clearly playing politics trumps safeguarding children on the Conservatives’ list of priorities.”
The move was always likely to be rejected in the Commons due to Labour’s massive majority, as the Government wants to roll out the 2022 recommendations made by Professor Alexis Jay’s inquiry rather than open a new probe.
Critics claim Starmer wants to avoid a national inquiry because it could put the focus on his time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
The Prime Minister has defended his record, pointing out that he brought the “first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang” and changed the approach to dealing with similar cases.
Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which reported in 2022, says “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs.
On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Prof Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, with further details expected to be set out in the coming weeks.
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