Starmer says government will fund further local grooming gangs inquiries if ‘needed’
The government will fund any further local inquiries into the grooming gangs scandal that are deemed necessary, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
However, the prime minister said it is his “strong belief” that the focus must be on implementing recommendations from the Alexis Jay national review before more investigations go ahead.
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It follows a row over whether Labour is still committed to the five local inquiries it promised in January, after safeguarding minister Jess Phillips failed to provide an update on them in a statement to parliament hours before it closed for recess on Tuesday.
Sir Keir Starmer joins police officers on patrol in Cambridgeshire. Pic: PA
Instead, Ms Phillips told MPs that local authorities will be able to access a £5m fund to support locally-led work on grooming gangs.
On Thursday morning, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted the “victim-centred, locally-led inquiries” will still go ahead, while a Home Office source told Sky News more could take place in addition to the five.
Speaking to Sky News’ Rob Powell later on Thursday, Sir Keir confirmed that there could be more inquiries than those five but said the government must also “get on and implement the recommendations we’ve already got”.
The prime minister said: “Of course, if there’s further local inquiries that are needed then we will put some funding behind that, and they should happen.
“But I don’t think that simply saying we need more inquiries when we haven’t even acted on the ones that we’ve had is necessarily the only way forward.”
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Yvette Cooper speaks to Sky News
Ms Phillips’s earlier comments led to accusations that the government was diluting the importance of the local inquiries by giving councils choice over how to use the funds.
Sky News understands she was due to host a briefing with MPs this afternoon at 5pm – the second she had held in 24 hours – in an attempt to calm concern amongst her colleagues.
Review recommendations ‘sat on a shelf’
Sir Keir insisted he is not watering down his commitment for the five local enquiries, but said the Jay recommendations were “sitting on a shelf under the last government” and he is “equally committed” to them.
He added: “At the most important level, if there is evidence of grooming that is coming to light now, we need a criminal investigation. I want the police investigation because I want perpetrators in the dock and I want justice delivered.”
In October 2022, Professor Alexis Jay finished a seven-year national inquiry into the many ways children in England and Wales had been sexually abused, including grooming gangs.
Girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped across a number of towns and cities in England over a decade ago.
Prof Jay made 20 recommendations which haven’t been implemented yet, with Sir Keir saying on Thursday he will bring 17 of them forward.
However, the Tories and Reform UK want the government to fund a new national inquiry specifically into grooming gangs, demands for which first started last year after interventions by tech billionaire Elon Musk on his social media platform X.
Elon Musk has been critical of Labour’s response to grooming gangs and has called for a national inquiry. Pic: Reuters
‘Fuelling confusion’
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the statement made by Ms Phillips “was one of the most cowardly things I have ever seen” as he repeated calls for a fresh inquiry.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, also told Sky News that ministers were “fuelling confusion” and that the “mess.. could have been avoided if the government backed a full national inquiry – not this piecemeal alternative”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the government needed to look at “state failings” and she would try and force a fresh vote on holding another national inquiry, which MPs voted down in January.
‘Political mess’
As well as facing criticism from the Opposition, there are signs of a backlash within Labour over how the issue has been handled.
Labour MPs angry with government decision grooming gangs
With about an hour until the House of Commons rose for Easter recess, the government announced it was taking a more “flexible” approach to the local grooming gang inquiries.
Safeguarding minister Jess Philips argued this was based on experience from certain affected areas, and that the government is funding new police investigations to re-open historic cases.
Speaking on Times Radio, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Sir Trevor Phillips called the move “utterly shameful” and claimed it was a political decision.
One Labour MP told Sky News: “Some people are very angry. I despair. I don’t disagree with many of our decisions but we just play to Reform – someone somewhere needs sacking.”
The government has insisted party political misinformation was fanning the flames of frustration in Labour.
The government also said it was not watering down the inquiries and was actually increasing the action being taken.
But while many Labour MPs have one eye on Reform in the rearview mirror, any accusations of being soft on grooming gangs only provides political ammunition to their adversaries.
One Labour MP told Sky News the issue had turned into a “political mess” and that they were being called “grooming sympathisers”.
On the update from Ms Phillips on Tuesday, they said it might have been the “right thing to do” but that it was “horrible politically”.
“We are all getting so much abuse. It’s just political naivety in the extreme.”
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‘We will leave no stone unturned’
Ms Phillips later defended her decision, saying there was “far too much party political misinformation about the action that is being taken when everyone should be trying to support victims and survivors”.
“We are funding new police investigations to re-open historical cases, providing national support for locally led inquiries and action, and Louise Casey… is currently reviewing the nature, scale and ethnicity of grooming gangs offending across the country,” she said.
“We will not hesitate to go further, unlike the previous government, who showed no interest in this issue over 14 years and did nothing to progress the recommendations from the seven-year national inquiry when they had the chance.
“We will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of justice for victims and will be unrelenting in our crackdown on sick predators and perpetrators who prey on vulnerable children.”
Many Labour MPs have been left shellshocked after the chaotic political self-sabotage of the past week.
Bafflement, anger, disappointment, and sheer frustration are all on relatively open display at the circular firing squad which seems to have surrounded the prime minister.
The botched effort to flush out backroom plotters and force Wes Streeting to declare his loyalty ahead of the budget has instead led even previously loyal Starmerites to predict the PM could be forced out of office before the local elections in May.
“We have so many councillors coming up for election across the country,” one says, “and at the moment it looks like they’re going to be wiped out. That’s our base – we just can’t afford to lose them. I like Keir [Starmer] but there’s only a limited window left to turn things around. There’s a real question of urgency.”
Another criticised a “boys club” at No 10 who they claimed have “undermined” the prime minister and “forgotten they’re meant to be serving the British people.”
There’s clearly widespread muttering about what to do next – and even a degree of enviousness at the lack of a regicidal 1922 committee mechanism, as enjoyed by the Tories.
“Leadership speculation is destabilising,” one said. “But there’s really no obvious strategy. Andy Burnham isn’t even an MP. You’d need a stalking horse candidate and we don’t have one. There’s no 1922. It’s very messy.”
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Starmer’s faithfuls are ‘losing faith’
Others are gunning for the chancellor after months of careful pitch-rolling for manifesto-breaching tax rises in the budget were ripped up overnight.
“Her career is toast,” one told me. “Rachel has just lost all credibility. She screwed up on the manifesto. She screwed up on the last two fiscal events, costing the party huge amounts of support and leaving the economy stagnating.
“Having now walked everyone up the mountain of tax rises and made us vote to support them on the opposition day debate two days ago, she’s now worried her job is at risk and has bottled it.
“Talk to any major business or investor and they are holding off investing in the UK until it is clear what the UK’s tax policy is going to be, putting us in a situation where the chancellor is going to have to go through this all over again in six months – which just means no real economic growth for another six months.”
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Why is the economy flatlining?
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After less than 18 months in office, the government is stuck in a political morass largely of its own making.
Treasury sources have belatedly argued that the chancellor’s pre-budget change of heart on income tax is down to better-than-expected economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
That should be a cause of celebration. The question is whether she and the PM are now too damaged to make that case to the country – and rescue their benighted prospects.
UK
Home secretary vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers – as Denmark-based reforms to be unveiled
The home secretary is set to unveil sweeping measures to tackle illegal migration, vowing to end the UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers.
People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, in the changes expected to be unveiled on Monday by Shabana Mahmood.
Modelled on the Danish system, the aim is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.
Planned changes mean that refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
The Home Office said the “golden ticket” deal has seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries, onto dangerous small boats.
Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.
As part of the changes, the statutory legal duty to provide asylum seeker support, including housing and weekly allowances, will be revoked.
The government will seek to remove asylum support, including accommodation and handouts, to those who have a right to work and who can support themselves but choose not to or those who break UK law.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Pic: PA
‘Last chance for a decent politics’
A government source said Ms Mahmood believes her reforms are about “more than the electoral fortunes of her party”.
“This is the last chance for a decent, mainstream politics. If these moderate forces fail, she believes, something darker will follow,” they said.
“But this demands that moderates are willing to do things that will seem immoderate to some. She has reminded those who are reluctant to embrace her ambition for bold reform, with an ultimatum: ‘if you don’t like this, you won’t like what follows me.'”
Ms Mahmood said they were the most sweeping changes to the asylum system “in a generation”, as she vowed the government will “restore order and control to our borders”.
The home secretary also told The Sunday Times that “I can see – and I know my colleagues can – that illegal migration is tearing our country apart”.
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System being ‘gamed’
The source said Ms Mahmood believes the system is being “gamed by those travelling on boats or abusing legal visas”.
Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey across the Channel so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.
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The gangs smuggling people to the UK
That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than at the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.
What happened in Denmark?
The UK government points to Denmark remaining a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, while also cutting the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully removing 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Labour government has “lost control” of the UK’s borders” with illegal channel crossings “surging to over 62,000 since the election”.
He said some of the new measures were welcome but “they stop well short of what is really required and some are just yet more gimmicks – like the previous ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick”.
Mr Philp added: “Only the Conservative borders plan will end illegal immigration – by leaving the ECHR, banning asylum claims for illegal immigrants, deporting all illegal arrivals within a week and establishing a Removals Force to deport 150,000 illegal immigrants each year.”
And Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These sweeping changes will not deter people from making dangerous crossings, but they will unfairly prevent men, women and children from putting down roots and integrating into British life.”
Ms Mahmood will be appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
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