Sir Keir Starmer has opened the door to a U-turn on his refusal to hold an inquiry into grooming gangs, Downing Street has confirmed, despite ordering his MPs to vote against initiating one.
After safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said a new national probe into the scandal was still on the table, the prime minister’s spokesperson said the government would grant one if victims’ groups called for it.
“Jess Phillips has been engaging extensively with victims, and what we have heard loud and clear from victims is that they do not want to see more inquiries,” they said.
The shift in position came as MPs voted against a Tory amendment that would have initiated an inquiry; the amendment was defeated by 364 votes to 111.
After repeated questioning, Sir Keir’s spokesperson said that if victims’ groups indicated in the future they wanted a new national probe into grooming gangs, one would be granted. It represented a major shift by the government from its position at the weekend of being strongly against an inquiry:
- On Sunday, health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The reason we are not doing another national inquiry is because there has been a national inquiry”
- As pressure grew on Monday, Sir Keir said: “Politicians … calling for inquiries are jumping on the bandwagon with the far right”
- On Wednesday morning, Jess Phillips, who had initially rejected the inquiry, said: “Nothing is off the table. If the victims come forward to me in this victims’ panel that I will make, and they say, ‘actually, we think there needs to be a national inquiry into this,’ I’ll listen to them”
- At 12.05pm, Starmer said in Prime Minister’s Questions: “On the question of a further inquiry, there have been a number of inquiries, some of them localised, including the mayor of Manchester’s recent inquiry. The national inquiry Professor Jay carried out took seven years. It had 20 recommendations, none of which were actually implemented by the Conservative Party when it was in government”
- Less than an hour later, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists: “If victims’ groups indicate in the future they want a new national probe into grooming gangs, one will be granted”
Sir Keir’s spokesperson said they would “reject” claims it was a U-turn, instead saying the government was pursuing a “victims-first approach”.
It came after a tense PMQs in which Sir Keir and Kemi Badenoch traded blows over the issue of child grooming gangs, with the PM sticking to the line that victims want action as opposed to another inquiry over fears about a delay.
Ms Badenoch described child grooming as “one of the worst scandals in British history”, accusing the PM of denying an inquiry to protect Labour politicians “who may be complicit”.
But her spokesperson later confirmed she has not yet met any victims of the grooming gangs scandal and has no plans to do so.
In the Commons debate, shadow education secretary Laura Trott dismissed claims that it is only the far right calling for an inquiry into grooming gangs.
“There are legitimate arguments to be had in this area. But the one I will not accept is to call for this is to be ‘far right’. The Labour government have to understand that they must explain their actions, not just call the opposition names”, Ms Trott told the Commons.
She added: “This is an enormous scandal and yet we do not know fully the number of victims, the number of perpetrators and where this has taken place.”
Despite growing pressure from figures including tech billionaire Elon Musk, Sir Keir and his top team have so far insisted the government is focused on implementing the recommendations of the previous review into child sex abuse, by Professor Alexis Jay. She has denounced Mr Musk’s calls for a new inquiry, urging ministers to “get on with it” and implement the 20 recommendations from her 2022 report.
At PMQs, Sir Keir accused Ms Badenoch of jumping on a bandwagon in her calls for a new inquiry into grooming gangs. He said: “One of the central recommendations was mandatory reporting, and it still hasn’t been enacted. I called for this 11 years ago, they’ve been tweeting and talking, we’ve been acting.
“The Leader of the Opposition has been an MP, I think, for eight years; her party have been in government for seven and a half of those eight years. She was the children’s minister. She was the women’s equalities minister. I can’t remember her, I can’t recall her once raising this issue in the House, once calling for a national inquiry.
“It’s only in recent days she’s jumped on the bandwagon. In fairness, if I’m wrong about that and she has raised it, then I invite her to say that now, and I will happily withdraw the remark that she hasn’t raised it in this House in the eight years that she’s been here until today.”