The chancellor has refused to say if the government will apologise for dismissing calls for a national public inquiry into grooming gangs after the prime minister U-turned on the matter last night.
Rachel Reeves told Sky News Sir Keir Starmer changed his mind after a government-requested audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country concluded a nationwide probe was necessary.
But she said the most important thing is to focus on the victims, not the “hurt feelings” of how others may have been spoken about.
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Speaking to Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Ms Reeves said one of the reasons the prime minister changed his mind on the need for a statutory public inquiry is to ensure that “people are compelled to give evidence”, which local inquiries do not have the power to do.
The chancellor was then asked if there will be an apology to people who were criticised by ministers for “talking total nonsense”, spreading “misinformation”, and were accused of jumping on an extremist “bandwagon”.
She replied: “What is the most important thing here? It is the victims, and it’s not people’s hurt feelings about how they have been spoken about.”
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What has the PM previously said?
The prime minister has been sharply criticised for his comments about people calling for a statutory public inquiry. He said on 6 January: “What I won’t tolerate is this discussion and debate based on lies without calling it out. What I won’t tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention.
“When those politicians sat in government for 14 long years tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about [it]. Now, so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far right is saying.”
But Ms Reeves defended the prime minister’s handling of the issue, saying he pledged to implement all 20 recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), criminal convictions are now at “a record high”, and that he brought the first convictions for grooming when he served as director of public prosecutions.
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PM explains his U-turn
Sir Keir confirmed last night that he will now be ordering a full statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. The full report from Baroness Louise Casey is set to be published on Monday, and the home secretary is expected to make a statement to parliament.
He told reporters travelling with him to the G7 summit in Canada: “[Baroness Casey’s] position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on.
“She has looked at the material… and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report, and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.
“I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me, and having read her report… I shall now implement her recommendations.”
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What will the report say?
The near 200-page report is to be published next week and is expected to warn that white British girls were “institutionally ignored for fear of racism”.
One person familiar with the report said it details the institutional failures in treating young girls and cites a decade of lost action from the IICSA, set up in 2014 to investigate grooming gangs in Rotherham.
The report is also expected to link illegal immigration with the exploitation of young girls.
Read more on this story:
Telford child abuse victims speak out
What we know about grooming gangs, from the data
The women who blew whistle on Rotherham
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The grooming gang scandal came back into the headlines at the beginning of the year after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Philips for failing children.
The prime minister and Ms Phillips hit back, with Sir Keir citing his record of prosecuting abusers as director of public prosecutions, while Ms Phillips has long been a campaigner against domestic violence.
At the time, she told Sky News that the tech billionaire’s claims were “ridiculous” and that she would be led by what victims have to say, not him.
