A Labour Party MP has broken ranks with Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer to demand a national public inquiry into the child rape grooming gang scandal, arguing that the substantial public interest is not merely a fixation of the so-called “far-right”.
This week, Prime Minister Starmer ordered his party to vote down a motion from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to establish a public inquiry into Muslim child rape gangs and the failures of police, politicians, and other local officials to protect young girls in Britain. This came after Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips shot down a local inquiry into grooming gangs in Oldham.
Despite Labour overwhelmingly voting down a national inquiry, cracks appear to be emerging, with Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden becoming the first parliamentarian to break from the prime minister, saying that the “public call for justice must be heeded”.
Carden, who abstained from the inquiry vote, told the Liverpool Echo: “The British public want action and justice on the unspeakable rape gangs. The scale of the crimes committed – rape, murder, torture – are horrific.
“It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial or cultural issues or because victims were poor and working class.”
The Labour MP went on to say that the country must “question and challenge the orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism that led to authorities failing to act,” arguing that a “new doctrine to take our multi-ethnic society into the future” is needed.
“The outcome must include acknowledging the racial and ethnic hatred of this mass sexual violence. This is not an obsession of the far-right. I am speaking out because over the decades there have been far too few Labour voices expressing clear disgust and outrage at these heinous crimes, their cover-up and the lack of action,” Carden said.
While Carden represents the first defection of a Labour MP on the issue, he is not alone in the party demanding that the government launch an inquiry.
This week, the influential Labour Party mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, made a similar call, arguing that previous local inquiries into grooming gangs did not have the same legal powers as national inquiries.
Public sentiment also appears to be firmly against the left-wing government. A YouGov survey this week found that 76 per cent of Britons support a national inquiry, compared to just 13 per cent who oppose it.
Separately, a poll from More in Common of over 2,000 people found that 41 per cent think that the grooming scandal was intentionally covered up, The Telegraph reported.
Previous reports have found that local officials and police failed to act to protect young white girls from mostly Muslim Pakistani child rape gangs for fear of appearing racist or stoking ethnic divisions.
Responding to the defection of the Labour MP on the issue, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice remarked on X: ” Labour MP breaks ranks and demands child rape gang inquiry. Same day as former Labour MP arrested for alleged child sex offences. Labour on the ropes. This is unsustainable.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Saturday that if the government does not establish a national public inquiry by the end of the month, his party will fund an investigation staffed with independent arbiters to uncover abuse and government failures.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: [email protected]
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