Keir Starmer blocks national inquiry into child grooming gangs as Badenoch skewers PM for risking ‘cover-up’

By Chris Philp, shadow Home Secretary

THE Labour government has just whipped its MPs to vote against a proper national inquiry into the rape-gang scandal.

That shameful vote exposed their lacking of both a backbone and anything resembling a moral compass.

The reason this whole sickening episode went on so long was that people in authority covered it up and brushed it under the carpet.

Now the Labour government risks doing exactly the same thing.

For years, people said it was “racist” or “Islamophobic” to point out the vast majority of the evil perpetrators were of British Pakistani background.

Starmer continued in that vein earlier this week by smearing as “far right” those who seek to defend the victims of these sick gangs and raise this issue.

It was exactly that kind of language that led to all this being covered up in the first place.

When I pointed this out in Parliament on Monday, many Labour MPs opposite booed me.

The mother of a young girl who committed suicide after being groomed and raped said she was “completely disgusted” by their behaviour when she saw the footage.

You can understand why. Girls as young as 11 or 12 were systematically raped by organised gangs for years.

Some of those in authority did nothing — or even actively covered it up.

Local councils, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service all failed the young victims over years.

We have heard from former Labour MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, that the then-chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party told him to keep the allegations quiet to avoid losing Muslim votes.

Labour should hang their head in shame and apologise. They won’t, of course.

So now we need to get to the truth and end the cover-ups and conspiracy of silence.

Only a tiny fraction of the 50 towns identified as having been affected have been investigated so far.

The most recent Jay report — Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse — only examined six towns, and there have only been a handful of individual town inquiries.

Most affected towns, such as Keighley, have been left out of the inquiries entirely, with victims and their families still waiting for the answers they deserve.

Labour claim local inquiries are the answer. But these won’t cover every town affected and, anyway, amount to marking their own homework.

And even where there are local inquiries, they don’t have the legal power to summon witnesses, take evidence under oath or requisition evidence.

As recently as last summer, the chairs of the Manchester local inquiry are reported to have resigned because public bodies were still withholding critical information – and the local Manchester inquiry lacked the power to compel disclosure.

A proper national, public inquiry would have the legal power to compel witnesses to attend and given evidence under oath, and get access to key documents.

A national public inquiry could be focused and limited to a short time.

We don’t want a lawyers’ fee fest, we need the truth fast.

It is totally wrong that not a single person in a position of authority has ever been held to account for the cover-ups and the gross negligence we have seen.

There is a relevant criminal offence here — misconduct in public office.

I would like to see those in authority found to have covered up these crimes or negligently ignored them prosecuted for misconduct in public office.

Of course, in the meantime recommendations from previous inquiries like IICSA can be implemented and more perpetrators arrested.

The last Government took action, setting up a grooming gangs taskforce which arrested 550 suspects in its first year alone.

I would also like to see the sick perverts responsible kicked out of the UK where they have dual nationality or the right to citizenship in another country.

If another country won’t take their citizens back, we can use visa sanctions to make them change their mind — a power created by the last Conservative government in the Nationality and Borders Act.

There are thousands of young girls who suffered unimaginable trauma. Trauma they must live with while the justice, truth and accountability they seek remain out of reach.

This is ultimately about the victims and their families. And they have spoken out in recent days about how they need a proper national inquiry to get to the truth.

What exactly is Labour trying to hide by ignoring the desperate pleas from the victims and their families?