Labour ministers have until now used every possible excuse to avoid an inquiry into rape gangs. Starmer first explicitly rejected calls for an inquiry on 8 January this year. The punchy Casey ‘Audit’ delayed by Labour is set to force the PM – currently hiding in Canada – to change his tune. Six months later this is every excuse the government used:
- Keir Starmer in January: Calling for a national inquiry was “jumping on a bandwagon” and “amplifying what the far-right is saying” to gain attention. He went on: “We have seen this playbook many times – whipping up of intimidation and of threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it. Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.”
- David Lammy in January: “We’ve already had a national inquiry. And I think the Prime Minister was right earlier in the week to really call to mind the facts, the truth, and to call out those who are putting forward mistruths in this area.”
- Keir Starmer in January: He argued that a national inquiry “will delay things to 2031” and that “we already know what the major flaws are.”
- Yvette Cooper in January: “Effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide.”
- Jess Phillips in January: “I don’t need to wait for a national inquiry to tell me there are people who should have lost their jobs, people who should probably go to prison.”
- Bridget Phillipson in January: “The Conservative amendment [to call for a national inquiry] was shameful and would have stopped vital child protection measures in the bill.” She then called the calls for a national inquiry “grabbing a cheap headline and political opportunism.”
- Lisa Nandy in April: “The truth is that we are listening to victims and authorities around the country about the need to give them the right tools to tackle it, this very pernicious problem, in their own areas.”
- Lucy Powell in May: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let’s get that dog whistle out.”
Cooper is fronting the publication of the review in the Commons this afternoon. Starmer should return from his Canadian jolly in time for PMQs on Wednesday or be accused of running scared…
