Sir Keir Starmer has said he gets “frustrated” with politicians who “shout and scream but do nothing” as he defended past comments about a grooming gangs inquiry.
Speaking to Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister was asked if he regretted saying in January that those calling for a national probe into paedophile rings were “jumping on a far-right bandwagon” – given he has now agreed to one.
Politics latest: Baroness Casey asks people to ‘keep calm’ about grooming gang ethnicity data
Sir Keir said he was “really clear” he was talking about the Tories, who were demanding an inquiry they never set up when they were in government.
He said: “I was calling out those politicians.
“I am frustrated with politics when people shout and scream a lot and do nothing when they’ve got the opportunity to do it. It’s one of the worst aspects of politics, in my view.”
The government has launched a national inquiry in response to a report by Baroness Casey, who found the ethnicity of people involved in grooming gangs has been “shied away from” by authorities.
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The cross-bench peer was asked to produce an audit of sexual abuse carried out by grooming gangs in England and Wales in January, when comments by tech billionaire Elon Musk brought the scandal back into the spotlight.
The government initially resisted calls from the Tories for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, saying they wanted to focus on implementing the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s seven-year review into child abuse.
The review concluded in 2022 but the Conservatives did not implement its recommendations before they lost the election last July.
The government’s position has changed following Baroness Casey’s review, which recommended an inquiry.
Her report found that ethnicity data is not recorded for two-thirds of grooming gang perpetrators. However at a local level in three police forces – Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – “there has been a disproportionality of group-based child sexual exploitation offending by men of Asian ethnicity”.
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She said instead of looking into whether ethnicity or cultural factors played a part, authorities “avoided the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist”, and this warranted further investigation.
Speaking to Beth Rigby, Sir Keir said he “read every word” of the report and there “must be accountability”.
Asked if he is happy for “social workers, policemen and people that failed” to be held accountable, he said: “Where the inquiry uncovers failure or wrongdoing, then there should absolutely be accountability.
“That is amongst the purposes of an inquiry, and it’s a statutory inquiry… which will therefore mean there is power to compel evidence of witnesses because it’s important that it is comprehensive and important that it gets to every single issue. And as part of that process, there’s accountability for individuals who did wrong.”
