The Conservatives have told Sir Keir Starmer that “it is not far-Right to stand up for the victims” of child sexual abuse and that “smearing people who raise those issues is exactly how this ended up getting covered up in the first place”. The Telegraph has more.
The Prime Minister said in a speech this morning that those calling for a national inquiry on grooming gangs were seeking to “jump on a bandwagon of the far-Right”.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, responded to Sir Keir’s remarks by claiming that “smearing people who raise those issues is exactly how this ended up getting covered up in the first place”.
He told the Commons: “A word on the Prime Minister’s comments this morning: It is not far-Right to stand up for victims of mass rape”. …
Sir Keir Starmer is “the best recruiting sergeant for extremism”, James Cleverly has claimed. …
The former Tory Home Secretary said that the words were “deeply insulting and counterproductive”.
Writing on X, Mr. Cleverly said: “When will Starmer and Labour learn?
“Accusing those who disagree with him, or who seeks legitimate answers about repeated failures of child protection, as ‘far Right’ is deeply insulting and counterproductive.
“He is the best recruiting sergeant for extremism,” he added. …
Lee Anderson has said that Labour should “hang their heads in shame” after he claimed that only one Labour backbench MP attended a recent debate on grooming gangs.
The Reform U.K. Chief Whip said: “The Labour lot over there are banging on about playing politics on this important issue, but the last time I attended a debate on child rape gangs, there was just one Labour backbencher that turned up. They should hang their heads in shame.”
Meanwhile, a Labour MP accused Conservative and Reform U.K. MPs of a “shameful attempt to stoke division at the expense of victims” by calling for a new inquiry.
Nadia Whittome, the MP for Nottingham East, told the Commons: “Calls now for a fresh inquiry from the Conservatives and Reform are a shameful attempt to stoke division at the expense of victim survivors and children.
“So I thank the Home Secretary for refusing to give in to this deeply harmful and defensive political pointscoring.”
This afternoon Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that child groomers are to get longer prison sentences as the Government scrambled to respond to renewed public anger.
Grooming will be treated as a statutory aggravating factor when judges sentence offenders for specified child sex offences including rape and sexual assault.
It will mean that judges will be required by law to hand down an additional length of time in jail on top of the sentence that the groomer receives for any sexual offence that they committed against the victim.
The grooming will not have to be sexual and it will mean longer sentences for abusers who are part of grooming gangs but may not themselves have groomed a child.
The tough new law was proposed by the Tories in their Criminal Justice Bill before the election but the legislation fell when Rishi Sunak called the election.
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