Keir Starmer is set to block a national inquiry into child grooming gangs in Parliament today, ordering his MPs to oppose an amendment tabled by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch that would trigger a new official inquiry. The Mail has more.
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 U.S. billionaire Elon Musk – accused the Conservatives of “shocking” tactics by tagging the measure on to the wider Children’s Wellbeing and 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”.
“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”.
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph explains the process:
The Bill is due to face its second reading debate this afternoon which is the first big hurdle legislation must clear and is when MPs debate and vote on the broad principles of a Bill. Amendments seeking to make changes to a Bill are not allowed at second reading.
So the Tories and Reform have instead tabled what are called “reasoned amendments” which set out reasons for objecting to a Bill rather than proposed changes.
If a “reasoned amendment” is passed by the Commons it has the effect of killing off the Bill it is attached to.
So with today’s action it is possible for Labour to try to argue that it is all about the Tories and Reform trying to kill the Bill while the Tories and Reform can try to keep the focus purely on the inquiry issue.
The Tories also oppose the Bill because it takes the axe to the freedom of academies:
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott told Sky News: “Academies are being abolished in all but name as part of this Bill and we completely oppose that and everybody should.”
The Tory frontbencher argued that the Bill would strip academies of many of the freedoms they currently have on things like teacher pay and admissions.
Elon Musk kept the pressure on this morning, tweeting: “Now why would Keir Starmtrooper order his own party to block such an inquiry? Because he is hiding terrible things. That is why.”
Independent Oldham Councillor Abdul Wahid has said Keir Starmer needs to “stop deflecting” from the issue of grooming gangs by “calling everybody far-Right”, adding: “Why would anybody with an ounce of humanity deny the public a fair and independent inquiry?”
Stop Press: MPs voted by 364 votes to 111 against Kemi Badenoch’s call for a new inquiry.
Watch Kemi tell Parliament that Starmer “doesn’t want questions asked of Labour politicians who may be complicit“. (Though Farage pointed out that “as Women and Equalities Minister from 2022 to 2024 [Badenoch] didn’t meet a single victim of these rapes and never raised the issue once”.)
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Of course Labour will vote against it, that’s the whole point of the amendment to expose them for the bag-o-shyte they are, covering up their own and Dear Leader’s complicity in the gang-raping.
The “Conservatives” have no room to talk, but at least – at last – they are trying to be an effective Opposition. This is probably because they have Reform – the only ones with clean hands in this issue – breathing down their necks and taking the lead.
As I think Sir Humphry might have described it – “that’s a very brave decision Prime Minister”.
Except that the blocking almost certainly originates in the civil service protecting its own.
The fact is that what we have here is the worst state-originated crime in modern British history: the state-enabled race-motivated mass rape of white children. This was/is a crime with a genocidal purpose which was/is deliberately directed at the native people of our country. It’s a crime which marks the Establishment – and it’s ghastly Uniparty – clearly and starkly as the enemy of our people. Our Establishment is now shown to be beyond redemption, fit only for the dustbin of history. No wonder TTK doesn’t want an inquiry.
Our Establishment is now shown to be beyond redemption
Indeed. F*****s, the lot of them.
Seconded.
‘Sir’ Keir earned his knighthoold defending pedophiles and the pedophile establishment. Rewarded with a PMship.
Nothing says ‘values’ like pretending that 1 million white girls have not been raped by Muslim sex gangs.
All part of the sex Jihad, one of the great drivers for the ‘greater’ Jihad.
This man is an abomination, a feckless, witless, cowardly worm. Stuck Farmer.
According to the BBC, the bill Phillipson is whining about contains the following:
Phillipson’s claim that this would be about “child protection” is thus … well … sickening. It’s entirely about forcing children into the state education system even against the will of their parents. It’s particularly disingenuous to claim anything of this would anyhow relate to “grooming gangs.” The problem wasn’t that children were kept away from climate and gender change propaganda and from being told that they must redeem their white guilt if the happen to have had the wrong kind of parents by native Brit homeschooling gangs, although that’s apparently the problem the government is trying to tackle.
Labour: Your children belong to us! And we’ll make sure Pakistani gangsters get their fair share, too! United we stand against Islamophobia!
¹ They’re not planning the chip them all yet.
Biden said a similar thing regarding kids belonging to the state, not the parents.
It is also similar to when that tory MP was stabbed to death a couple of years ago. Instead of tackling the source of the issue, they made hay out of online censorship, completely unrelated issue.
Phillipson is an utterly loathsome person. Only in a sh*tshow such as this present Government would she be in charge of our children’s education.
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear Starmer.
There’s obviously a great deal you, personally, feel the need to hide…… as well as many others in your disgraceful Party.
Great man, much respect for the indefatigable Raja;
”Dear Mr. Musk,
I, and the people of my town, owe you our gratitude. For six years, we have led the campaign for a Public Inquiry into the cover-up of the grooming and gang rape of Oldham’s children.
To this day, not a single mainstream reporter or news agency has told the full story of what powerful politicians did to those of us who refused to turn a blind eye to the industrial-scale abuse of children, not just in Oldham but across the UK. Without this platform, the truth would remain hidden.
Today, Keir Starmer and his Labour UK will vote against a Public Inquiry into this national scandal. Here are the three main reasons why:
– To protect the block postal votes they rely on from sections of the UK’s Muslim communities to stay in power.
– To shield senior Labour politicians implicated in the cover-up, including Deputy PM Angela Raynor, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Government Minister ‘Jim from Oldham’
, and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
– To silence and demonise working-class communities like ours. They believe that by branding us as racists and far-right they can silence all opposition and tighten their grip on power.
The Prime Minister is fully aware of what took place in Oldham. When we first began our campaign, whilst leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer came to Oldham to help support members of his team that were trying to put myself and others in prison for daring to speak out.
Without your voice, and this platform, we would have already been defeated. For that we will be ever grateful. Thank you Elon Musk.
Yours Sincerely
Raja Miah MBE”
https://x.com/recusant_raja/status/1876903874524516858
https://x.com/ILA_NewsX/status/1876951108964266136
It’s high time to spell out explicitly what the cutesy moniker grooming gangs really means.
NB: The following is entirely a conjecture of mine, just one I consider to be highly likely.
The business model behind a so-called grooming gang is likely the following:
The people behind this doubtlessly do this with a perfectly clean conscience (insofar their view of themselves is concerned) because they believe our “Let’s fornicate some more!” society is a sign of godless depravation and the girls they’re targeting really don’t deserve any better because they’d be having sex in exchange for drugs, anyway, as they’re part of the depraved society where this is common-place, just possibly under less commercial circumstances.
That’s a really nice example how cultures in multicultural societies end up clashing with each other.
And the Award for Sheer Brass-Necked Shamelessness goes to….
Bridget Phillipson MP for that rabidly insane, totally unironic tweet
“Block our plans to protect vulnerable children”??? The mind boggles. These people are seriously mentally compromised.
It all smells a bit “minty” doesn’t it.
Two-Tier Keir he didn’t care,
Two-Tier Keir was dumb.
He’d rather take the knee than dare
To find out what was done.
The more they attempt to be evasive and recalcitrant the more suspicion they draw to themselves. Many will ask why they are doing this and then lots of people will begin to see that it can only be because they will not like what will be brought to light.
I’m coming to the conclusion that literal heads on poles is what’s needed. Red lines are drawn in blood for a reason.