Can you ‘take the politics out' of the grooming gangs scandal?
Yesterday Yvette Cooper announced a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal after the Casey Review found that a disproportionate number of Asian men were responsible and that governments and authorities had failed to step in over fears of racism. Anxious to press Labour on their U-turn – memorably, Starmer accused the Tories of 'jumping on the far-right bandwagon' – Kemi Badenoch held a press conference, joined by victims of the gangs. 'I'm not doing politics now, when I'm in the Houses of Parliament, when I'm in the Commons, I will do politics', she said. But can you really take the politics out of the grooming gangs scandal?
Elsewhere, Donald Trump has fled the G7. Although this isn't the first time he has cut a G7 visit short, it does mean he snubbed meetings with Zelensky and the Mexican president. Have Labour got what they wanted out of the conference? And what should we read into Trump's early exit?
Lucy Dunn speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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The Independent
42 minutes ago
- The Independent
Starmer hits back at Badenoch over grooming scandal, claiming Tories did nothing
The Prime Minister has suggested Kemi Badenoch did nothing about grooming gangs when the Tories were in power, as a political war of words erupted after a major report in the scandal was published. Sir Keir Starmer asked 'why on earth' Mrs Badenoch did not bring forward a mandatory duty for authorities to report child sexual exploitation when she was a minister. 'Why didn't you do it? Why didn't you say one word about it?' he added in a message to the Opposition leader, as he spoke to reporters at the G7 summit in Canada. Sir Keir's rebuttal came after the Tory leader called a Westminster press conference, where she said was 'not doing politics now', but criticised people who sought to 'tone police those who are pointing out when something has gone wrong'. As he spoke to reporters at the summit in the Canadian Rockies, the PM also contrasted his time working as England and Wales' chief prosecutor, and his initial years as an MP when he called for mandatory reporting, with Mrs Badenoch's time in Government. 'Kemi Badenoch, I think, if I remember rightly, was the minister for children and for women, and I think the record will show that she didn't raise the question of grooming once when she was in power, not once, not one word from the dispatch box on any of this,' the Prime Minister told reporters. ' Chris Philp (the shadow home secretary), I think, went to 300-plus meetings when he was in his position in the Home Office and at not one of those meetings did he raise the question of grooming. 'So, I know there's some discussion of this 'far-right bandwagon'. I was actually calling out politicians, nobody else, politicians who in power had said and done nothing, who are now making the claims that they make.' 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She said: 'We need to change some laws, we need to do a national criminal investigation, we need to get on with a national inquiry with local footprint in it and ideally wouldn't it be great if everybody came behind that and backed you?' She added: 'I felt the Opposition could have just been a bit, you know, yes we will all come together behind you. 'Maybe there's still time to do that. I think it's just so important that they do.' Mrs Badenoch said her party did back a national inquiry into the scandal, and had been calling for one 'for six months'. Shadow home secretary Mr Philp said the Conservatives wanted the inquiry to take two years, focus on 'all 50 towns affected' and 'look at the role of ethnicity in the cover-up'. But appearing in front of the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday morning, Baroness Casey urged people to 'keep calm' on the subject of ethnicity. 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It tells you something, and it doesn't tell you something I certainly would want to hear if I was a victim.' Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips also told the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday 'I don't want to hang about' over implementing Baroness Casey's 12 recommendations and that a figure is being worked up on how much it will cost to carry out the changes. She also said a national inquiry will not delay reforms from being introduced. 'I will not wait and, and I have to say the department hasn't waited for findings of an inquiry to be getting on with the work that needs doing,' she said. 'Whether that's…the task force that leads on this, whether that's other interventions that we fund in the policing space, or the support space, that those things all go on.' A Downing Street spokesman said the format and chairperson of the inquiry would be set out at a later date, adding that it would have the power to compel people to give evidence. He added that the Government had accepted all of Baroness Casey's recommendations, including making it mandatory for the police to collect data on the ethnicity of suspects.
The Independent
42 minutes ago
- The Independent
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Western Telegraph
an hour ago
- Western Telegraph
‘Cruel' criminalisation of women over abortion must end, says MP ahead of vote
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi said her amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would remove women from the criminal justice system in relation to their own pregnancies, ensuring they could not face investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment. She said the UK's 'Victorian' abortion law is 'increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls' and that her amendment is the 'right change at the right time' and a 'once-in-a-generation' opportunity to bring change. Abortion in England and Wales remains a criminal offence but is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability. It is also legal to take prescribed medication at home if a woman is less than 10 weeks pregnant. Efforts to change the law to protect women from prosecution follow repeated calls to repeal sections of the 19th-century law, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019. Ms Antoniazzi said her proposed 'narrow, targeted' measure does not change how abortion services are provided or the rules under the 1967 Abortion Act. She said: 'This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help. As I have said it before, and I will say it again, just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.' She added that her amendment is backed by 180 MPs from across the Commons and 50 organisations including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Tonia Antoniazzi has tabled an amendment to decriminalise abortion (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) The MP assured her colleagues the current 24-week limit would remain, abortions would still require the approval and signatures of two doctors, and that healthcare professionals 'acting outside the law and abusive partners using violence or poisoning to end a pregnancy would still be criminalised, as they are now'. A separate amendment has also been put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy and goes further by not only decriminalising abortion, but also seeks to 'lock in' the right of someone to have one and protect those who help them. Ms Creasy's amendment will also be debated but 'will fall' if Ms Antoniazzi's is passed by MPs, the Commons heard. Referring to Ms Creasy's amendment, Ms Antoniazzi said while she agreed 'more comprehensive reform of abortion law is needed', such change of that scale should take place through a future separate piece of legislation. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is not present for Tuesday's vote, outlined her opposition to both amendments in a letter to constituents, saying while she believes safe and legal abortions are part of female healthcare, the amendments 'unnecessary' and 'dangerous'. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood will not be at the vote but stated her opposition (Ben Whitley/PA) The issue of women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions has come to the fore in recent times with prominent cases such as those of Nicola Packer and Carla Foster. Ms Packer was cleared by a jury last month after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks for taking such medication at home. She told jurors during her trial, which came after more than four years of police investigation, that she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks. The case of Ms Foster, jailed in 2023 for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant, eventually saw her sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal and suspended, with senior judges saying that sending women to prison for abortion-related offences is 'unlikely' to be a 'just outcome'. MPs had previously been due to debate similar amendments removing the threat of prosecution against women who act in relation to their own pregnancy at any stage, but these did not take place as Parliament was dissolved last summer for the general election. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has urged MPs to vote against both amendments, saying they would bring about 'the biggest expansion of abortion since 1967″. Alithea Williams, the organisation's public policy manager, said: 'Unborn babies will have any remaining protection stripped away, and women will be left at the mercy of abusers. 'Both amendments would allow abortion up to birth, for any reason. A separate amendment, tabled by Conservative MP Caroline Johnson proposes mandatory in-person consultations for women seeking an abortion before being prescribed at-home medication to terminate a pregnancy. She said her amendment aims to make sure women and girls are safe when they access abortion services. She told the Commons: 'I'm not trying to limit people's access to what is clinically legally available. I'm trying to make sure that people are safe when they do so.' She said the change she has proposed would be to protect women who have been trafficked and forced into sex work or those who have been sexually abused and where a perpetrator is attempting to cover up their crimes by causing a termination. But Ms Antoniazzi said remote access to abortion care was 'safe, effective and reduces waiting times', and that such a change would 'devastate abortion access in this country'. The changes being debated this week would not cover Scotland, where a group is currently undertaking work to review the law as it stands north of the border. On issues such as abortion, MPs usually have free votes, meaning they take their own view rather than deciding along party lines. The Government has previously said it is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon.
