An influential Labour Party group has broken with the Prime Minister to back calls for a national inquiry into the grooming and rape gangs.
The Blue Labour outfit said that a new inquiry was necessary to “give voice to the many thousands of forgotten victims,” in what they described as “the worst series of atrocities that have taken place in Britain since the war”.
The Labour group, which was founded by Labour peer Lord Glasman, said “progressives denied, obfuscated, equivocated, averted their eyes, changed the subject,” when faced with the scandal.
The statement, seen exclusively by GB News, said that many figures on the Left did “anything but look the dark side of multiculturalism squarely in the eye”.
Keir Starmer has so far refused to back a national inquiry into the grooming gangs
PA
The group added: “For many of us in Blue Labour, the left’s inability to face up to the awful reality of the organised grooming and rape of young girls by men of mostly Pakistani origin across English towns severed our faith in progressive politics for good.”
In a scathing attack on the party’s leadership, the statement said that “too many are still doing that today when they immediately pivot to talking about the far-right or Elon Musk. But this is not about them, and nor is it about the Prime Minister. It is about the victims and their families, and the failures at every level which enabled their abuse.”
The intervention will come as a blow to Labour, which is battling against demands for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal from both the Tories and Reform UK.
Describing some of the attempts to shut down the issue in the past, Blue Labour said: “Those on the left who spoke up – Ann Cryer, Sarah Champion and others – were told to shut up.
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Lord Maurice Glasman
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“To acknowledge reality was considered ‘dog-whistling’ at best, if not outright racism. The victims were mostly poor and vulnerable, living in faraway working-class towns outside the glare of Westminster. They were easy to ignore.
“In liberal society, it is still seen as impolite to talk about such things. The truth is so horrific it is scarcely believable and it confounds the progressive imagination. But this squeamishness is moral cowardice and it continues to this day.”
The group said they hoped “the renewed attention on the most awful scandal in modern British history leads to justice for the victims.
“This means tougher sentencing, an end to the chilling effects of political correctness, and a total reset of our broken immigration system – including the deportation of offenders where possible.”
Maurice Glasman
GETTY
The group took aim at a key Labour defence, which has been to refer to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published in 2022.
Blue Labour said: “Those who claim the national inquiry (IICSA) that reported in 2022 was adequate have been misinformed. Its scope was too broad, with any focus on grooming gangs incidental.
“It elided the central question of ethnicity and religion. And it focused on six towns where there were no reports of grooming gangs; Telford and Rochdale received no mention and Rotherham was mentioned only once.”
On Sunday, Chris Philp, the shadow Home Secretary said: “The IICSA inquiry only covered six of the towns involved in the child rape gang scandal.
“Many of the worst affected towns were not even looked at by IICSA. We urgently need a full public inquiry to get to the truth – including the truth about the failure by the police to investigate, the truth about cover-ups by Labour local councils and the truth about the CPS approach to prosecutions, including during Keir Starmer’s time as DPP.”
GB News has compiled reports from over 50 different towns where grooming gangs operated.
Blue Labour said: “This inquiry must have proper focus and be given all available powers. We need a full reckoning with this evil.”
