Does UK need another national inquiry into rape and sexual abuse gangs?
The Elon Musk-instigated argument over whether the UK needs another national inquiry into rape and sexual abuse gangs reached the Commons on Wednesday, with the Conservatives pushing an amendment that would set up such a process, while at the same time torpedoing a wider government bill on schools and child welfare.Below are four claims being made about this much-contested subject, and what we actually know to be the case.The claim: The idea that the scale of “grooming gangs” was not just neglected as an issue but actively covered up has been a common charge not just by the likes of Reform UK, but also the Conservatives on occasions.At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch said Keir Starmer’s refusal to order another national inquiry could mean “people will start to worry about a cover-up”.The reality: This is to a great extent a value judgment.
The 2022 report by Prof Alexis Jay into the subject was scathing about the lack of protection for victims, and the way they were very often not believed.Jay’s earlier report, from 2014, into abuse and rapes in Rotherham, found a similar pattern, and said that some officials had been wary about discussing any ethnic patterns to the crimes for fear of being seen as racist.Whether this counts as gross negligence or a cover-up could be argued both ways.That said, the more specific idea that Starmer was resisting a second inquiry because he feared it could harm him or his government seems unlikely.As well as the fact that much of the relevant time period took place under Conservative rule, Starmer has been praised for his role in pushing forward prosecutions for such offences when he was director of public prosecutions.
The claim: This allegation has come from both sides of the political spectrum.The Conservatives argue that Starmer and his government have only taken action after Musk’s fusillade of tweets; in response, Labour say the Conservatives did little to improve matters during their 14 years in power.The reality: Once again, it depends how you frame things.There has been action in the sense of a series of reviews and inquiries, and a large number of prosecutions of perpetrators.Of 20 recommendations in the Jay report, Starmer’s government has pledged to implement several, including criminal sanctions for professionals who fail to report claims of child sexual abuse, overhauling how evidence on abuse is gathered, and to make grooming an aggravated factor in the sentencing of abuse cases.
The Conservatives have said they would have also implemented some of Jay’s recommendations in their criminal justice bill, which was lost when the general election was called.However, some campaigners said this bill watered down the sanctions for not reporting abuse, requiring only that there had to be hard evidence for it, rather than just suspicions.The claims: This has largely come from Musk and the coterie of hard- and far-right X users he has recently discovered.According to their narrative, Robinson, the adopted name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a journalist and campaigner who has brought the abuse scandal to prominence, and has in response been unjustly jailed by the state and is a political prisoner.The reality: This is a much easier one to adjudicate, as pretty much everything Musk has said or spread about Robinson is complete nonsense.
A longtime far-right agitator, he made his name leading the English Defence League, and anti-Islam street group that organised violent street protests in Luton, Robinson’s home town.He has criminal convictions for assault, mortgage fraud and trying to illegally enter the US.He is now in jail for contempt of court for repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee.The claim: Badenoch told the Commons on Wednesday that a definition the government plans to adopt will cite “talking about sex groomers [as] an example of Islamophobia”.The reality: The all-party parliamentary group on Islamophobia, which drew up the definition, has said this isn’t true.
It says the only way discussion of grooming gangs would be covered would be if it was used as a “collective smear and trope being used against all British Muslims”,This was intended, the group said, to try to stop repeats of documented cases of attacks on Muslims by attackers citing grooming gangs as a reason,
Liz Truss sends legal letter ordering Starmer to stop saying she crashed economy
Liz Truss has sent a legal letter to Keir Starmer demanding he stops making “false and defamatory” claims that she crashed the economy.The former prime minister sent a six-page “cease and desist” letter accusing Starmer of harming her reputation and contributing to her losing her South West Norfolk seat in the general election.The row came as the UK’s long-term borrowing costs hit their highest level since the 2008 banking crisis, and the value of the pound reached its lowest point in a year.Truss’s legal letter argued that the market meltdown that followed her disastrous mini-budget in October 2022 could not accurately be described as “a crash of the economy” because it did not involve a fall in GDP or rise in unemployment.Citing a report by the economist and rightwing commentator Andrew Lilico for Europe Economics, the letter said the economic turmoil was the result of factors over which Truss had “no control”
Ties between Labour MP Tulip Siddiq and deposed Bangladeshi regime under spotlight
Tulip Siddiq reacted with anger when she was confronted in 2017 by reporters from Channel 4 asking her to intervene in the case of Ahmad bin Quasem, a British-educated lawyer who had allegedly been abducted in Bangladesh by the regime of Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina.“Are you aware that I am a British MP and that I’m born in London?” she asked Alex Thomson, the channel’s chief correspondent. “Are you implying that I’m a Bangladeshi? Because I don’t think that’s the right thing to imply.”Despite Siddiq’s insistence that she has little to do with her aunt’s now-deposed government in Dhaka, the City minister is now under pressure to explain why she has benefited from property paid for by people connected with that regime.Siddiq, who has responsibility for UK anti-corruption policy, has referred herself to Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, to decide whether she has broken the ministerial code
Half of England’s county councils due to hold elections could ask for delay – reports
Half of the county councils due to have elections in England this spring could ask to have them postponed.Local elections are due to take place in 21 county council areas in England in May, but at least 12 of them are poised to ask ministers for a delay, the BBC and the Times reported.Angela Rayner, the local government secretary, has given councils until Friday to request that their elections be delayed so that they can explore the potential for restructuring their local authority as part of devolution plans.Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has reacted furiously to the potential delay. Several of the councils that have asked to postpone the ballots, including Essex and Thurrock, are key Reform target areas
Civil service morale worsened despite improving pay levels, survey finds
Morale and churn in the UK civil service worsened despite average pay almost bouncing back to real-terms levels last seen in 2010, an annual survey has found.The Whitehall Monitor report, by the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, due to be published next Thursday, found that average civil service pay rose for the 2023-24 financial year, with the government settling disputes that had led to industrial action.However, its analysis of morale for 2023 found the mean “engagement” score dipped slightly for the third year in row, while churn in jobs – those who move between departments or leave the civil service entirely – went up by a percentage point to 12.7%.Although the figures relate to a period before the Labour government came to power, the IfG said its report underlined the challenge Keir Starmer faces as he tries to reform the civil service and make it more dynamic
Post-cold war peace ‘well and truly over’, warns David Lammy
The post-cold war era is “well and truly over” and keeping the British people safe means standing up to Russia, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned.Writing in the Guardian before a meeting likely to be focused on Ukraine between the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Downing Street, Lammy insists “keeping the British people safe means standing up to the Kremlin. Working with our friends and allies to deter Putin’s mafia state.”He also says facing down the new geopolitical threats will require a revamped Foreign Office that accepts that the distinctions between international and domestic policy have become more blurred than ever before.In a statement of this intent, Lammy announced the Foreign Office will introduce the first standalone sanctions regime in the world directed at freezing the UK assets of people smugglers and organised crime entities
Tories’ Pavlovian response to Elon Musk’s tweets leads to shameless PMQs | John Crace
Last weekend the Daily Mail ran a front-page story about the imminent demise of Keir Starmer. A few days on and it’s increasingly looking like Kemi Badenoch whose job may be on the line. Just take a look at the faces of her backbench MPs at prime minister’s questions. Faces taut. Wishing they were somewhere else
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