Tories’ push for new grooming inquiry would ‘kill’ child safety bill, says Phillipson
The Conservatives’ push for a new national grooming inquiry that would block the child safety bill is “absolutely sickening”, Bridget Phillipson has said.The education secretary said the opposition party’s plan to amend the government’s children wellbeing and schools bill on Wednesday, which she called the “single biggest piece of children safeguarding legislation in a generation”, would “kill it stone dead”.The amendment Kemi Badenoch’s party will bring forward will call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.It follows Elon Musk’s calls for a new inquiry into child grooming gangs, even though an independent investigation led by Prof Alexis Jay concluded its work in 2022.None of its recommendations have been enacted, but Keir Starmer has vowed to do so instead of launching a new inquiry.
His decision has been backed by Jay, who led the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.The expert said “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs.Phillipson told Times Radio: “They come along today as we set out legislation to protect the very children they claim to care about and they intend to block it and kill it stone dead.It is absolutely sickening.”She added: “We are looking right across the recommendations that Alexis Jay set out and there are crucial recommendations from the review that she carried out.
“That’s why today we are setting out legislation that addresses many of the wider challenges that we see right across our system.It’s why the home secretary announced in the House of Commons the action that we are taking.“So we are wasting no time in legislating to keep children safe.The question for the Conservatives today is why they are intent on blocking this landmark piece of child protection legislation that would keep the very children safe that they claim they are concerned about.”While the amendment for a new inquiry is not likely to gain enough support, given Labour has a huge majority in the Commons, if it did it would slow the progress of the bill, which includes measures aimed at improving safeguarding for children.
The bill, if passed, will mean parents no longer have an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or suspected of being at risk of significant harm.Phillipson’s comments came as the children’s commissioner for England joined the debate about grooming gangs and child sexual abuse, urging the government to “go much further, faster”.Dame Rachel de Souza said she would support “any further investigation considered necessary to uncover the scale and scope of failings, where any new evidence emerges”.She acknowledged steps already being taken by ministers to better protect children.She said: “I welcome the commitments already made by the government and the landmark legislation being taken through parliament in the form of the children’s wellbeing and schools bill – but this is the moment to go much further, faster.
”De Souza has written to Phillipson and the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, setting out her priorities on child protection.“Our collective ambition must be to listen to what child victims have told us, through their testimonies to the Jay inquiry, as well as through my own research, and get on with the hard task of acting in response.We must also take action now.Change for hundreds of thousands of children can’t come soon enough.”Keir Starmer has also warned Conservative MPs not to back the amendment, saying it prioritises “the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children”.
Starmer told the Mirror: “No MP should be voting down children’s safeguarding measures,It’s shocking they are even thinking about this as a tactic,“It’s the elevation of the desire for retweets over any real interest in the safeguarding of children,”Responding to Labour’s refusal to launch an inquiry, Musk, the billionaire owner of X, on Wednesday called the prime minister “Starmtrooper”, accusing him of trying to cover up “terrible things”,The shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, said a national inquiry into grooming gangs should be considered “without calling each other names”.
Slice of summer: watermelon and nectarines among Australia’s best-value fruit and veg in January
Stone fruit and Victorian berries are at their affordable best, while Hass avocados are creeping up in priceAfter a run of wet summers that put a damper on summer crops, this year’s drier conditions means there’s little that’s off the table this month.Stone fruit is particularly cheap and sweet, says Graham Gee, senior buyer at the Happy Apple in Melbourne. “Peaches and nectarines … you can get for about $3 a kilo, with premium varieties a few dollars more,” he says.Take advantage of the glut by pickling your ripe peaches or using nectarines in desserts. Thomasina Miers’ nectarine and raspberry sourdough pudding is a seasonal play on bread-based pudding with crunch, chew and tang
How to make chips without potatoes | Kitchen aide
It’s hard to deny the allure of a big ol’ pile of hot, fat, crisp, salty chips, but with the festive season finally over, now is a time to ring the changes. And if that means swapping your spuds for another veg, so be it. For a good chip alternative, “any fibrous root vegetable that can hold its shape will fry up a treat”, says Alice Zaslavsky, author of Salad for Days, but you don’t necessarily have to fry them: “You can roast them, or you can cook them in an air fryer. As long as there’s enough oil and a high enough temperature, you’re good to go.”Sweet potatoes are the obvious alternative, but they have a higher moisture and sugar content, and have form for turning soggy or just plain burning
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for tamarind chickpeas with cavolo nero | Quick and easy
Tamarind chickpeas – a little sweet, a little sour – are my absolute favourite, and I never run out of ways to cook them. This version is simply boosted with chilli, cumin and sugar, so there’s no long list of spices, either. Fresh tomatoes and cavolo nero add plant points and interest, while pickled pink onions bring crunch and sharpness. If you want a quick, 30-minute curry, make this with jarred chickpeas; if you’re using tinned, cook them for longer and with more boiling water, because they need more time to soak up the flavours.Scoop this up with flatbreads or, even better, cooked-from-frozen Shana parathas
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for lentil and spinach soup | A kitchen in Rome
Once upon a time in Messina, there lived a boy named Nick who loved to swim. Or so begins the tale of Cola Pesce, told by many, including Italo Calvino in his book of Italian folktales. So great was his love that Nick spent his days and nights in the sea while his mother stood on the shore, pleading: “Oh, Nick, come out of the water, you are not a fish.” He didn’t listen, though, and every day he swam farther out while his desperate mum yelled across the water until it gave her a kink in her intestines. Then, one day, having screamed herself hoarse, she blurted out – as is so often the case in such circumstances – “Nick, may you turn into a fish
Notes on chocolate: the best dark choc for this dark time of year
January is a fine time to experiment with bars of 80% and overSo here we are. Through the other side. Despite my protestations that deep winter is not the time for deprivation, I have several friends on diets and attempted overhauls of their lives. Luckily, none have given up chocolate completely, but some of them are opting for the 80% and over.There is good reason for this: it’s got more health benefits and far less sugar, and if you don’t eat loads of sugar anyway a very high percentage chocolate tastes epic and actually quite sweet
Sunday with Paddy McGuinness: ‘I’m a double carb man’
The radio presenter talks about his meaty Sunday dinners, condiments, trimmings, being spoiled as a child and doing what he’s told as a dadSunday routine? I get up, do the kids’ breakfasts and leave about 9am to do my Radio 2 show. I get there at 10am, the show starts at 11am, so my Sunday doesn’t start properly until 1pm.What happens then? I’ll go straight online and order myself Sunday dinner. Beggars can’t be choosers, so I’ll take whatever meat they’ve got on offer.Trimmings? I’m a double carb man, so mash and roast potatoes, good veg, and a big old Yorkshire pudding absolutely obliterated by gravy
Ties between Labour MP Tulip Siddiq and deposed Bangladeshi regime under spotlight
Half of England’s county councils due to hold elections could ask for delay – reports
Civil service morale worsened despite improving pay levels, survey finds
Post-cold war peace ‘well and truly over’, warns David Lammy
Tories’ Pavlovian response to Elon Musk’s tweets leads to shameless PMQs | John Crace
Labour sees off Tory ‘bandwagon’ call for new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs