With his sleeves rolled up at a hospital in Surrey, we all prepared for Sir Keir Starmer’s first public statement on the grooming gangs scandal since the scandal re-emerged last week.
Watching on my phone while standing next to a campaigner against child sexual exploitation in Tameside, Greater Manchester, I thought he might trot out the standard line that we have already had an inquiry and that the government takes victims seriously.
But what he said next has sent this national conversation into a spiral of anger, hurt and confusion.
Standing in front of NHS doctors and nurses, the PM accused those calling for a new inquiry into this appalling stain in British history of jumping on a “far-Right bandwagon”.
Starmer also fired a barrage at Elon Musk by criticising those who “spread lies and misinformation” in online posts.
The X founder has been a central part of the renewed focus on the scandal, with the world’s richest man sharing coverage of the crisis, including the GB News scoop on Jess Phillips’s rejection of an independent inquiry into Oldham.
He has also come under fire for his language about the safeguarding minister, who he has termed a “witch” and “genocide rape apologist” who should be in jail.
But Starmer’s attacks went beyond Musk, Tommy Robinson, and online voices.
He also tried to tar politicians with the same brush, accusing the Conservatives and Reform UK of “amplifying what the far-Right is saying” and “jumping on the bandwagon” in their call for a national inquiry.
Charlie Peters has outlined the effects of the Prime Minister's comments
GB News
I’ve rarely seen Councillor Liam Billington, that Tameside campaigner, lost for words. Like many activists on this issue, he’s a gobby warrior he won’t accept being told to shut up.
But those lines from Starmer stunned him into silence.
Survivors across the country then shared their reaction with me. I can’t repeat much of it, so intense was the anger from women who have been waiting decades for justice.
One survivor from Rotherham told me: “Victims all over deserve to know the true extent of why we were abused and who covered it up. It’s so easy to keep blaming the far-right every single time this issue comes up. We need to know the truth across the country.”
The rest of her message was slightly less delicate.
Another victim phoned me soon after to say: “Demanding an inquiry into child abuse is not jumping on the bandwagon or far-right. Refusing what we clearly need is appalling and unacceptable. Children live with the damage for years, hiding the problem is not fixing it, facing the problem will.”
And there has been shock from political commentators and politicians alike, with senior figures in the Conservatives and Reform UK taking aim at the PM for his response.
Trying to reclaim control of the narrative, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made an emergency statement in the house as the evening drew in.
She announced a victims’ panel, sterner prison sentences for groomers, and the mandatory reporting of child abuse.
But the government continues to resist calls for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.
They point to the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse as having sufficiently covered the crisis.
But as we have pointed out on GB News for years, the report looked at just six areas for its investigation into grooming.
We have identified well over 50 different towns and cities where this abuse has taken place, but the inquiry looked at just ONE of those areas in its review.
Clearly, we do not know just how much this national atrocity was covered up and neglected by the authorities.
It’s no wonder, then, that survivors are incandescent with rage at the prime minister linking the far-right with calls for action and ruthless investigation into this nationwide travesty.
If Downing Street wants to quell the anger then they should do the right thing, face up to the facts, and finally deliver an aggressive probe into the grooming gangs scandal.
It is Britain’s shame. With his reaction, Starmer risks making some of that shame his own.
