Sir Keir Starmer insisted he doesn’t regret accusing people who called for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal of jumping “on a bandwagon of the far-Right”. He refused to apologise, despite carrying out a u-turn this week and announcing that he would now set up a statutory national inquiry to discover why police, social services and other public bodies failed to protect girls being abused and raped by adult men.
Earlier this year the Prime Minister claimed Conservative politicians were “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far-Right.” Asked today if he should apologise for those remarks, Sir Keir refused.
He was asked by Beth Rigby from Sky News: “Your decision now to hold an inquiry into grooming gangs after refusing six months ago to do so, has sparked anger. Kemi Badenoch says you owe victims an apology that irritates you, doesn’t it? You don’t think you do owe anyone an apology, do you?
Sir Keir replied: “Well, my frustration is on those that don’t focus on the victims. I won’t go over the last 15 years, but I brought the first prosecution 15 years ago in reaction to these grooming cases. I then changed all the guidelines on criminal justice.”
Asked a series of questions by Beth Rigby about the scandal, Sir Keir failed to apologise.
She then asked him: “Do you wish you had conflated it with the right wing ‘bandwagon’? Because that’s not what…. People’s concerns about grooming gangs weren’t necessarily right wing. Do you wish you hadn’t said it?”
The Prime Minister said: “I don’t, I’ve never implied that other people with genuine concerns and certainly not victims…. I’ve been working with victims. I’ve seen first hand the impact it has on victims… “
Beth Rigby asked: “So it’s not the right wing ‘bandwagon’ is it? “
Sir Keir replied: “But, I was calling out those politicians . I mean, I am frustrated with politics when people shout and scream a lot and do nothing when they’ve got the opportunity to do it. It’s one of the worst aspects of politics, in my view.”
The Government’s decision to order a full national inquiry was prompted by a report by Baroness Louise Casey which found hundreds of “group-based” sexual offences against children took place in one year but warned the true scale was not known.
Her report warned that “senior officials in the police, local authorities and other agencies” had used “flawed data” to downplay the role of Asian or Pakistani men in carrying out abuse.
It said: “Despite reviews, reports and inquiries raising questions about men from Asian or Pakistani ethnic backgrounds grooming and sexually exploiting young White girls, the system has consistently failed to fully acknowledge this or collect accurate data so the issue can be examined effectively.
“Instead, flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as sensationalised, biased or untrue. This does a disservice to victims and indeed all law-abiding people in Asian communities.”