Harry Cole and Jack Elsom – The Sun Jan 7, 2025

SIR Keir Starmer will today order his Labour MPs to vote against calls for a new national inquiry into the Asian rape grooming gangs scandal — insisting the time has passed to ask any more questions.

But the Prime Minister was accused of moral cowardice by the Conservatives after ministers rejected a request from Labour-run Oldham council for a fresh investigation.

Meanwhile, the Government’s approval rating plunged to a record low, showing Labour is more unpopular than when Tory PM Boris Johnson was forced to resign in 2022 following a series of scandals.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch today plans to table an amendment in the Commons to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

It will call for a specific investigation into failings and cover-ups in about 60 northern towns over Pakistani-heritage rape gangs.

Sir Keir also faces pressure from Reform UK, as leader Nigel Farage yesterday threatened to crowdfund his own private inquiry.

No10 insisted that — if selected by the Speaker and successful — the Tory motion would, in effect, torpedo Labour’s flagship schools legislation.

As a result the PM is prepared to use his huge majority, with a three-line whip ordering Labour MPs to vote against it.

Sir Keir has insisted that the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which took seven years to complete, was thorough enough to identify any failings and take action.

His spokesman yesterday said: “The time has passed for more inquiries and consultations especially for victims and survivors who clearly want action.”

Yet campaigners insist the previous inquiry — led by Prof Alexis Jay — only skimmed the surface of organised abuses by men of largely Pakistani heritage.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “To vote against a national inquiry into this scandal is total moral cowardice from Keir Starmer and his Labour party. The victims of these heinous child rape gangs deserve honesty, and they deserve the truth.”

Mr Farage added: “I honestly believe that through the police, through social services, through the last days of the Labour government, through the entirety of the last Conservative government, there has been a concerted attempt to play this down for fear of what it might do, for fear of being called racist.

“The irony is that the attacks themselves were racist. This was anti-white female racism.”

Tory shadow education minister Neil O’Brien insisted: “The victims of the child rape gangs deserve justice. So many have never had their voices heard.

“Labour MPs now have a first chance to vote to give victims answers and justice, and pass an amendment that will make clear that the will of Parliament is for a national inquiry.

“But if they fail to do so, the Conservatives will not back down and will continue to amend the Bill at every opportunity. I hope Labour MPs will start to listen to their constituents and vote to do the right thing.”

Mr Farage has vowed to launch a private inquiry into the scandal if Sir Keir refuses to act.

He told LBC: “If they won’t do it, we, at Reform, will do it. I will have no difficulty in raising the money to do this whatsoever. We’ll appoint independent ex-judges and experts.”

While admitting it would not have legal powers to compel witnesses, Mr Farage said: “I think this would garner such massive public support that anybody who was asked to appear that didn’t appear would look terrible. I think there is now overwhelming demand for us to know the full unvarnished truth, however horrid it may be.

“I can raise the money for it today, not from Elon Musk, either. I can raise the money for it today, and we can do this.

“And I mean it, I mean it, and I think that the Government will know that when I say something.”

One of the lawyers on the Jay Inquiry suggested reopening that inquiry to zero in on the issue of ethnicity in grooming gangs.

US billionaire Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, forced the scandal back into the spotlight with incessant tweets and attacks on Labour figures.

While causing outrage, he has been credited with driving ministers to act on child abuse.

Meanwhile Labour’s safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who has been hammered by Mr Musk for blocking a new inquiry, accused him of putting her in danger.

She said: “The few days of madness is nothing compared to the decades sat in police stations with girls bleeding from a battering that they’ve taken from a grooming gang.

“So I’ll put on my big girl pants and just suck it up.”

Downing Street yesterday confirmed people in regulated sectors who work with children, such as teachers, nurses, scout leaders and church members, face jail for failing to report child abuse.

Any individual who deliberately obstructs someone reporting abuse also faces prosecution.

However other professions where staff are aware of child abuse in their workplace face no such duty.

The PM’s spokesman could not say whether this would have forced Jimmy Savile’s BBC colleagues to report his crimes.

A YouGov poll shows Labour’s approval rating has fallen to -47, below the -42 when Mr Johnson quit as PM.

A Labour spokesman said: “It is appalling that the Conservatives are attempting to block this government’s plans to keep the most at-risk children in our country safe from harm.

“On Wednesday, Conservative MPs have a choice to back our measures to protect children from grooming, exploitation and abuse, instead of playing politics with the safety of vulnerable children.”

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