Sir Keir Starmer has warned Conservative MPs not to back a Commons push for a new nationwide child grooming investigation, as it prioritises “the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children”.
The Prime Minister said that Kemi Badenoch’s attempt to garner parliamentary support for a new inquiry, in the form of an amendment to a Bill aimed at bolstering the safety of children, was a “shocking tactic”.
Sir Keir’s Government has faced a slew of attacks from X and Tesla owner Elon Musk in recent days after Home Office minister Jess Phillips declined a request for a nationally led inquiry in Oldham.
Ms Phillips said she faced an increased risk to her safety since Mr Musk called her a “rape genocide apologist”, and the Prime Minister has signalled the businessman crossed a line with his criticism and was spreading misinformation.
The Tories have joined calls by Mr Musk for a new UK-wide inquiry into child sexual abuse, despite a wide-ranging independent probe having concluded its work in 2022.
On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch’s party will bring forward an amendment to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is expected to call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.
“It’s a shocking tactic, completely short-sighted,” the Prime Minister said in his first sit-down interview of the year with the Mirror newspaper.
He added: “I would implore any right-thinking Tory MP to vote for the Bill because this would kill the Bill, this would kill the legislation.”
The amendment is unlikely to be supported by a majority in the Commons, as the Government wants to roll out the recommendations of the investigation led by Professor Alexis Jay rather than open a new inquiry.
The non-binding amendment also calls for the Commons to halt the progress of the Bill, which includes measures aimed at bolstering safeguarding for children.
The Bill includes measures that will see parents no longer have an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or suspected of being at risk of significant harm.
Sara Sharif, 10, was pulled out of school just months before she was murdered by her father and stepmother.
Homeschooling allowed her abuse to carry on “beyond the gaze of the authorities”, the judge sentencing her killers warned in December.
Sir Keir told the Mirror: “No MP should be voting down children’s safeguarding measures. It’s shocking they are even thinking about this as a tactic. It’s the elevation of the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children.”
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien claimed the Tories were giving MPs the “first chance to vote to give victims answers and justice”.
Professor Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has said “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs.
On Monday, Ms Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Professor Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.
Andrew Norfolk, the Times newspaper reporter who exposed the Rotherham grooming gang scandal which led to Prof Jay’s report, told his former employer he did not think another investigation would help.
The retired journalist also sought to “put the record straight” on Sir Keir’s work as England and Wales’ chief prosecutor, insisting the PM “changed the rules to make more prosecutions possible”.
