Watch: Lucy Powell apologises for dismissing rape gangs as ‘dog whistle' issue
Lucy Powell has finally apologised for dismissing the rape gangs scandal as a 'dog whistle' issue.
The Leader of the Commons was condemned by grooming gang victims after she appeared to downplay the topic during a radio debate last week.
In an episode of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on May 2, Ms Powell interrupted Tim Montgomerie, a Reform backer, when he raised a Channel 4 documentary 'about rape gangs'.
The MP for Manchester Central replied: 'Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let's get that dog whistle out.'
During business questions in the Commons, Ms Powell was asked by Jesse Norman, the shadow Commons leader, to 'put aside party politics' and apologise.
She replied: 'Can I actually thank him for raising with me what I said in an episode of Any Questions last week, so I can be absolutely clear with the House today, especially to the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and grooming gangs, that I am very sorry for those remarks.
'As I made clear over the weekend, I and every member of this Government want your truth to be heard, wherever that truth leads. Their truly appalling experiences need to be acted on for those responsible to be accountable and face the full force of the law and for justice to be served.
'I would never want Mr Speaker to leave the impression that these very serious profound and far-reaching issues which I have campaigned on for many years should be shied away from and not aired – far from it.
'No stone will be left unturned and what the victims want first and foremost is for action to be taken and for the many many recommendations from the previous inquiries to be implemented in full including mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse something I have called for for nearly a decade.'
Ms Powell's apology comes six days after her initial remarks and five days after a statement issued on Saturday in which she sought to clarify her remarks but did not say sorry.
In a later exchange with Katie Lam, a shadow Home Office minister, the Cabinet minister went on to attack the Tories' record on grooming gangs.
Referring to 18 recommendations made by a broader report into child sexual abuse, Ms Powell said: 'Shockingly these recommendations remained sitting on the shelf until we came into government last year.
'Baroness Louise Casey, who conducted the no-holds-barred inquiry into Rotherham, is carrying out an audit on the scale, nature and characteristics of grooming gangs that she will be reporting soon and this will include the questions of ethnicity as well.
'Every police force in England Wales has been asked to look again at historic grooming gangs cases and they will be reopened where it is appropriate to get perpetrators behind bars... I hope the House is left in no doubt of my commitment to these issues, and my apology to those victims for any distress I have caused.'
Sir Keir Starmer has continued to resist calls by the Conservatives and Reform UK calls for a statutory inquiry into the historical sexual abuse of thousands of children by gangs of men, predominantly of Pakistani heritage.
Sarah Wilson, a Rochdale grooming gang survivor, said last week that Ms Powell's remarks summed up 'what victims and survivors have been up against all these years '.
Marlon West, the father of 20-year-old grooming gang victim Scarlett, also criticised the comments. Mr West and Scarlett both appeared in the Channel 4 documentary, Groomed: A National Scandal, which had been referenced by Mr Montgomerie.
Ms Powell's apology came as a Labour MP called for Sir Keir to dismiss her from his Cabinet in the wake of the scandal.
The MP said: 'Why is she still there? I honestly don't know how kept her job. I'm largely happy with the Cabinet as it is, but Lucy needs to be sacked.'
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