Labour blocks grooming gang inquiry into Starmer’s conduct as CPS head

This has been building for years as readers here will know. Peter McLoughlin wrote Easy Meat the major work on the subject, T0mmy R0bins0n spoke, we marched, I reported here with every court case I could follow, many others did the same in their own sphere and we were not p&ss&ng in the wind. It has taken a long time but now men too rich to be threatened by the establishment are saying the same thing.  So The Telegraph can report this, in temperate terms admittedly, the way it is. 

Labour has blocked an inquiry into Sir Keir Starmer’s conduct as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service while investigating the Oldham child grooming scandal.

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, refused to launch a public inquiry into historical sexual abuse by gangs in Oldham, saying it was for the council to decide whether one was necessary.

See also in The Telegraph Why would a self-proclaimed feminist refuse to hold an inquiry into the Oldham ‘rape gangs’? Jess Phillips presents herself as a champion of women and girls, yet won’t stand up for them in this case

The scandal was one of several across the country in which dozens of girls were abused by British Pakistani gangs.

Police forces and prosecutors often did not take action for fear of being called racist or Islamophobic,

Elon Musk, the US tech billionaire and ally of Donald Trump, and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, led criticism of the decision to block an inquiry. Mr Musk, who will have a major role in Mr Trump’s incoming administration, has emerged as a vocal critic of Sir Keir and his Government in recent months.

Writing on his social media platform X, Mr Musk claimed Ms Phillips “deserves to be in prison” over the “disgraceful” decision, which he suggested had been taken to protect the Prime Minister.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, who has written to Ms Phillips urging her to rethink her decision, said any inquiry should look into Sir Keir’s involvement as DPP.

He told The World at One on BBC Radio 4: “I can’t speculate about Keir Starmer’s personal motivations, but I think looking into the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service, including during the time when Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions, would be one of the things that this inquiry should certainly be looking at…

“That’s why we need an investigation, a proper statutory inquiry to get to the bottom of that kind of question.”

A 2022 report found children in Oldham were failed by agencies that were meant to protect them amid alleged grooming by “predominantly Pakistani offenders” in council homes and shisha bars, and by taxi drivers.

Sir Keir admitted that the CPS had let vulnerable girls down under his watch . . .

He said: “In a number of cases presented to us, particularly in cases involving groups, there’s clearly an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed.

“As prosecutors we shouldn’t shy away from that. But if we’re honest, it’s the approach to the victims, the credibility issue, that caused these cases not to be prosecuted in the past. There was a lack of understanding.”

On Thursday, a former MP for Rochdale claimed that an ex-chairman of Labour’s parliamentary party had warned him that drawing attention to the ethnicity of grooming gangs could harm the party’s electoral chances. Simon Danczuk, who represented the town from 2010 to 2017, said he was “threatened” by Tony Lloyd, who at the time was campaigning to be the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner.

It comes after Oldham council’s Labour group last year agreed to support an independent inquiry, writing twice to Ms Phillips urging the Home Office to support this work.

It agreed to send the request as part of an agreement with independent councillors to allow it to remain in control of the council, despite losing its majority last May. And boy, did they have to be pushed, having refused to consider any inquiry for a good 5 years. 

Ms Phillips replied to the councillors’ letter, in a letter first reported by GB News: “It is for Oldham council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene… I welcome the council’s resolution to do so, as set out in your letter, and to continue its important work with victims and survivors.”

It emerged on Thursday that Amanda Solloway, a former minister, also refused to commit the previous Conservative government to a Home Office-backed inquiry in Oldham. She said in a letter in September 2022: “The Government continues to be clear that it is for the local authorities in individual towns and cities, which are responsible for delivering local services, to commission local inquiries.”

Telford and Rotherham councils commissioned and funded their own inquiries into grooming gangs in their areas.

What we don’t want is one scapegoat (step forward Sir Kier, you are the Chosen One Sacrifice) and the rest to get away swept to safety under the carpet.  There is no one individual responsible, but like Nuremburg a good selection must face the consequences.