Labour MP John McDonnell isn’t doing Starmer any favours in his attempts to make the party look serious about tackling rape gangs. Guido’s seen an email McDonnell circulated to all Labour MPs last night from a left-wing lawyer downplaying the scandal, describing the rape gangs as “alleged.” The email begins:
“I thought I would just drop you a quick note to assist with the debate today and the ongoing furore (Elon Musk, Mr Farage, and Ms Badenoch), regarding alleged grooming of girls by groups of men of Pakistani heritage.”
It then shifts the blame to the Tories:
“In simple terms, this is a problem caused by the Conservatives, who commissioned the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and received its many reports, including the Organised Networks report and final report.”
A Tory source tells Guido:
“That a former Shadow Chancellor and one-time Labour leadership candidate is promoting loony lawyers who claim the grooming is “alleged” tells you all you need to know about Labour’s approach to this issue. Keir Starmer wants to sweep the rape gangs scandal under the carpet because the truth is too hard for Labour to confront. It is total and utter moral cowardice from a weak and spineless Prime Minister.”
McDonnell introduces the email with a note to say he “hopes” this “helpful” email will assist MPs “in responding to the appalling behaviour of the Conservatives and Reform.” Starmer will be praying his colleagues ignore the Corbynite’s advice…
Read the full email below:
Dear Colleagues
I received this from [X] of Howe & Co, the solicitors who dealt with a large number of the abuse cases.
I found this really helpful in hearing from a legal practitioner who had been at the forefront of assisting victims.
I hope this may assist in responding to the appalling behaviour of the Conservatives and Reform.
Best,
John
Subject: Child Abuse Inquiry – Grooming gangs
Dear John
I thought I would just drop you a quick note to assist with the debate today and the ongoing furore (Elon Musk, Mr Farage, and Ms Badenoch), regarding alleged grooming of girls by groups of men of Pakistani heritage.
In simple terms this is a problem caused by the conservatives, who commissioned the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and who received its many reports (including its Organised networks report and final report).
The IICSA sat for over 5 years and conducted 15 investigations. As you know we represented 25% of the victim core partipcants in that Inquiry, and you supported it when you were shadow chancellor, committing to maintain its funding if Labour came into power.
The IICSA published its final report in October 2022, and made 20 key recommendations, none of which the Conservative Government implemented fully or at all. That report can be found here:
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report/ii-inquirys-conclusions-and-recommendations-change/part-k-summary-inquirys-recommendations/k10-recommendations-better-protect-children-sexual-abuse.html
The very first recommendation (Recommendation one) is “A single set of core data relating to child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation.”
This arises from the IICSA Child Sexual Abuse Organised Networks Investigation Report of February 2022, which can be found here:
Click to access child-sexual-abuse-organised-networks-investigation-report-february-2022.pdf
The IICSA addressed the lack of information on race and ethnicity (see Section H, pages 98 – 107, and pages 37 – 38). Also in the conclusions at page 143 – 144:
Profiling
30. Problem profiling involves the drawing together by the police of information about child sexual exploitation from different agencies into one place. As the Children’s Commissioner made clear in 2013, a profile should include data about how many children and young people have been sexually exploited, intelligence on places of concern, and information on gangs and other networks, groups and individuals who present a risk of sexual harm.
31. Despite this, none of the police forces in the case study areas had an accurate profile setting out a clear picture of the networks sexually exploiting children in their area. Profiles were often based on limited, inaccurate or incomplete data. Issues with the flagging process contributed to these problems. There were widespread failures to collect data about the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims in the case study areas.
32. As a result, none of the police forces or local authorities in the case study areas had an accurate understanding of the networks sexually exploiting children in their area.
33. The improved collection and use of data is critical to the response to child sexual
exploitation if these offences are to be properly investigated and resourced.
And the IICSA recommended in its Organised Networks report:
Recommendation 5: Child sexual exploitation data
Police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect data on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation by networks. These data should be separated from other data sets, including data on child sexual abuse, and be disaggregated by the sex, ethnicity and disability of both the victim and perpetrator.
This disaggregated data should be used by police forces to inform problem profiling and activities to disrupt and investigate offenders. Local authorities should take account of the disaggregated data when commissioning services for children.
The UK Government and the Welsh Government should take steps to ensure that these data are being collected and disaggregated in a consistent and accurate way by police forces and local authorities.
Therefore, if the conservatives had implemented the IISCA’s very first recommendation, this issue would (by now) have been largely resolved, as we would have a data set that provided us with reliable transparent data on information including the ethnicity of perpetrators, suspected perpetrators and victims.
New National Inquiry
We agree with Prof Alexis Jay (Chair of the IICSA) that we do not need a new public inquiry, built from the ground up.
However, the IICSA could be quickly re – established to consider the implementation (or not by the conservative government) of its recommendations, and to review the findings of the many local inquiries that have been conducted into grooming, so that the myths and hyperbole around this issue can be countered by fact.
I hope this helps
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”