by Kathleen Stock, Sunday Times
A wide-angle inquiry will not bring this appalling scandal into focus
First we were told there couldn’t be a national public inquiry into grooming gangs, because there were going to be at least five local ones. This week, considerable confusion emerged about whether there would even be any of those. Buried within a statement about tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation generally, Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, announced with smooth customer-service rhetoric that “following feedback from local authorities”, instead of local inquiries, there might be “more bespoke work”. She added that “a flexible approach” would be taken, potentially including “local victims’ panels or locally led audits of the handling of historical cases”. It sounded as if she were talking about a kitchen renovation, not a matter of burning public interest.
To many eyes, this was a cowardly reversal to avoid offending core Labour voters — not least, perhaps, ones in Phillips’s Birmingham Yardley constituency. Some of these tend to get defensive when attention turns to facts about the predominant ethnic heritage (Pakistani) and religion (Muslim) of the men who have been conducting the systematic rape and abuse of white working-class girls in British cities for years. Sikh girls have also been targeted by groups of Muslim men. Though local inquiries would not have statutory powers, nor be able to join up dots between towns in terms of national policy, it would still be difficult to look away from uncomfortable facts about who, exactly, was doing what to whom. Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, have scrambled to deny any change to existing plans, but the impression will linger that political expediency is being prioritised over accountability for victims.
See also: Independent MP brands grooming gangs outrage ‘false right-wing narrative’ in ‘malicious’ tirade at Mirpur Airport campaign event – as Labour MP watches on. Charlie Peters, GB News. Watch here