Secretary of State for Safeguarding Jess Phillips defended herself in the House of Commons today, as she faced a grilling over grooming gangs.
Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti questioned whether Phillips knew that she was “failing women and girls” in a brutal quizzing.
Bhatti said: “Three weeks ago, the Government announced five local inquiries into rape gangs, which, crucially, cannot compel witnesses to give evidence.
“We still do not know where all of them will be, and we don’t know how those towns will be chosen.
Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti grilled Phillips
PMQ’s
“As Charlie Peters from GB News originally reported, there are 50 suspected towns where grooming gangs are suspected to have operated.
“Does the minister recognise that the failure to announce a meaningful national statutory inquiry means women and girls from across the country, who will not be from those five selected towns, will be denied justice, a fair hearing and if the victims want a national statutory inquiry, why doesn’t she?”
LATEST DEVELOPEMENTS
Jess Phillips responded: “I have spent time with the victims that he speaks about.
“In fact, I will be going to see some more of the victims from around the country this week. I speak to these victims every single week unlike, I have to say, many of the people sat opposite me.
“What I would like to say on this particular issue is that absolutely nothing was done previously to try and get to the truth in some of these towns, and we will absolutely do whatever we can to root out the gangs as everybody in this House wants to see.
“While some of us wish to use it for political ends, an end to this particular crisis is what we will be opening.
Jess Phillips said that she meets the victims every week
PMQ’s
“We have offered to open up cases and have set the task force to do exactly that, with any victim who wishes to come forward.”
Pressure has been mounting on the Labour Government to launch a national inquiry into the historic abuse suffered by young girls across Britain.
The rape gangs scandal has seen big groups of mainly British-Pakistani men convicted of grooming white girls.
The debate has been reignited in recent months when Elon Musk published a series of posts on X suggesting Starmer failed to deal with the grooming gang scandal while head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2008 and 2013.
In response, Starmer has accused critics of “spreading lies and misinformation” and claims he tackled prosecutions “head on”.
The Home Secretary instructed all police forces “to look again at historical gang exploitation cases and pursue and reopen investigations where appropriate.”
Local enquiries have been opened up, but the Government has remained firm on its stance to not open a national inquiry into the issue.