No.10 confirms Starmer has not ruled out new investigation into grooming gangs
Downing Street has said Keir Starmer is “open-minded” about a new inquiry into gang grooming requested by the Conservative Party.
In a lobby briefing after PMQs, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said the government wanted to focus on implementing the recommendations from the national child abuse inquiry, and Keir Starmer had previously said further investigations could slow things down. He reiterated what he told lawmakers in 2016.
However, the spokesperson also clarified that further investigation had not been ruled out.
Asked whether Security Minister Jess Phillips was right to suggest in an interview yesterday that there could be a new investigation, a spokeswoman said:
The Prime Minister’s position is the same as Jess Phillips’s, that we are of course open and will always listen to the needs of victims on this matter.
What we hear from our engagement with victim and survivor organizations is that they want action. That’s why we are committed to following Professor Alexis Jay’s recommendations and taking the necessary actions to achieve justice…
As the Prime Minister said on Monday, we will always remain open-minded. We always listen to local authorities who wish to investigate further or have further allegations that require follow-up.
When asked if a new investigation would be off the table, a spokesperson said:
Our position is that victims’ groups have said they do not want a national inquiry and therefore we share the view that it is not the best way to bring them justice.
We don’t have a sort of binary approach to this…The government’s approach is rooted in what victims want to achieve justice.
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Oliver Robbins likely to become top civil servant at Foreign Office
Former EU Brexit negotiator Oliver Robbins is expected to be appointed as the most senior civil servant at the UK Foreign Office, Pippa Crellard reports.
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PMQ – Instant Judgment
As an opposition leader, there is little you can do to influence government policy. But you can always ask for a public inquiry into something. It’s easy, it’s cheap (and it definitely should be, since governments never treat it as a spending promise), and it’s usually popular with the media. According to Robert Hutton’s excellent column on the subject yesterday, Ed Miliband called for at least 10 investigations in his first year as Labor leader. But Kemi Badenoch’s standards are quite restrictive.
And Badenoch’s decision to jump on the grooming gang investigation bandwagon appears to be paying off in terms of making a statement that appeals to right-wing media. She has reported favorably on the issue in Conservative newspapers. And with the Speaker confirming that her amendment will be put to a vote, she is close to being able to implement this advertising campaign.
It’s certainly more honest than last year’s Labor Party ad, which is clearly a parody.
Badenoch can claim to have made progress in other ways as well. Speaking about the investigation, Keir Starmer was noticeably more equivocal at PMQs than on Monday, when he said Mr Badenoch was jumping on the far-right bandwagon. Today Starmer was not trying to link Badenoch to the far right (even though he could have, and probably should have done so – see 9:35am), and the investigation into gang grooming He acknowledged that there are reasonable arguments for why it should be done. (See 12:04 p.m.) That’s not an argument that will convince him, he implied.
But shameless opportunism is still shameless opportunism, even if it yields short-term benefits. And in today’s PMQ debate, Starmer defeated Badenoch fairly easily. He reiterated, forcefully and persuasively, that Conservatives cannot vote against today’s bill and at the same time claim to be in favor of child protection. Badenoch could not refute this argument at all.
When she was ridiculed by Mr Starmer for raising an issue that she had clearly ignored during her eight years as an MP, including as Minister for Children and Minister for Women, she hit back a little more effectively, but on the whole Mr Starmer was But it was clear he was right.
Mr Starmer was also persuasive about the main issue in carrying out a new inquiry: how long it will take and the impact it will have on security policy in the meantime. Mr Badenoch said this was a “weak excuse” as Mr Starmer claimed “he cannot do two things at the same time”. But then she also said:
Shorter inquiries are much more likely to be made, especially if they cover areas that have not yet been explored.
This seems like a terminological contradiction.
And there was another contradiction when she claimed new research was needed to stop unpleasant people from blaming Muslims.
By refusing this inquiry, he is enabling those who want to vilify all British Muslims based on the actions of a minority.
Perhaps she should be interested in who “those people” actually are. Did she hear Robert Jenrick on the Today show yesterday?
Mr Starmer was right to accuse Mr Badenoch of jumping on the bandwagon and, essentially following an agenda set by voices in the Conservative media, Mr Badenoch said that Mr Badenoch was a candidate for the job of William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. He is acting exactly the same as he was when he was working. This may be enough to get you through PMQ. But that won’t get you to 10th place. Opposition leaders are only truly effective when newspapers follow their agenda, not the other way around. For Badenoch, that point is still a long way off.
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Updated to 13.40 GMT
The debate on child welfare and schools legislation has only just begun.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said she had chosen the Conservative amendment. (See 10 a.m.) That means the vote will take place at 7 p.m.
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Why didn’t co-accused Roger Gale prosecute Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who is now believed to have raped and abused at least 111 women when Starmer was director of public prosecutions? I ask.
“That case never crossed my desk,” Starmer said.
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Tonia Antoniazzi (Lab) asks about the proposal for the England cricket team to play in Afghanistan. She calls for a boycott of the tour.
Mr Starmer said he condemned the suppression of women’s rights in Afghanistan. And he said that the culture department was in touch with the international department on this matter.
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Asked about Tulip Siddiq, Mr Starmer said the independent adviser on ministerial interests had established the facts. He says he won’t provide live commentary.
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Josh Newberry (Lab) asked whether the Prime Minister intended to meet with retired miners to discuss how their pension payments could be improved.
Mr Starmer said he understood why retired miners were unhappy with the way the fund was being run and distributed. The government is considering this, he says.
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Josh Fenton-Glynn (Lab) asks whether the government intends to stop courts ruling that parent abusers should continue to have access to their children.
Mr Starmer said this was under consideration.
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Andrew George (Liberal Democrat) asked whether the First Minister intended to meet with Cornwall MPs to discuss housing issues in the county.
Starmer says the problem in places like Cornwall is that there are too many short-term rentals and second homes. He said a number of measures were being introduced to support this, but said he would arrange a cabinet meeting with Cornish MPs.
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Meg Hillier (Lab) asked whether the Prime Minister agreed that there was a need for clear targets for social housing.
Mr Starmer said the government would deliver 1.5 million new homes. And funding is set aside for affordable housing. And right to buy is being reformed to make the system fairer, he says.
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Mark Seward (laboratory) says this year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. He asked what the government was doing regarding Holocaust education.
Mr Starmer said the government had recently allocated more money to the fight against anti-Semitism and funded Holocaust memorials.
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Marie Goldman MP (Liberal Democrat) asks about constituents who are pharmacists whose costs are not fully covered by the NHS. She mentioned the price he had to pay for drugs.
Starmer says pharmacists play an important role. He said he would consider the details of the case once Goldman hands it over.
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Westminster SNP leader Stephen Flynn began by praising Starmer’s response to Badenoch. Turning to winter fuel cost cuts, he asked if Mr Starmer understood why people were so opposed to them.
Mr Starmer says the SNP government has the powers and funding it needs to do what it wants to do in Scotland.
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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey urged Mr Starmer to speed up the health inquiry, citing comments made by Andrew Dilnot in this morning’s health committee.
Mr Starmer said he hoped Liberal Democrats would help find a cross-party approach to this.
Davie turned to Elon Musk and asked if the government would act to reform party funding rules.
Mr Starmer said all MPs were happy to see Nigel Farage support Mr Musk on Sunday, but that Mr Musk had only said he should be replaced as leader of UK Reform. . He said the government was considering rules on political party donations.
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