Downing Street says grooming gangs scandal is being 'weaponised' as Labour minister faces calls to resign after branding it a 'dog whistle' issue
Sir Keir Starmer 's Downing Street has been condemned by grooming gang victims after backing a minister's suggestion the scandal was being 'weaponised'.
No. 10 officials hit out following calls for Commons Leader Lucy Powell to be fired for dismissing criticism as a 'dog whistle' campaigning.
A spokesperson for the PM, who was previously head of the Crown Prosecution Service, appeared to back Ms Powell amid calls for her to quit or be dismissed.
Cabinet minister Ms Powell, Manchester Central MP since 2012, is accused of having 'belittled' victims' following comments she made when responding on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions to Tim Montgomerie, founder of the website ConservativeHome.
In a discussion about councils' diversity spending, Mr Montgomerie asked Ms Powell whether she had watched a recent Channel 4 documentary on five women who had been victims of sexual grooming.
She replied: 'Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we?'
One of the victims of the Rotherham grooming gangs scandal today told MailOnline of her dismay at the remarks - and accused Labour of downplaying the 'heinous crime' committed against young girls.
Grooming gangs abuse and attempts by whistleblowers such as former Greater Manchester detective Maggie Oliver to expose police failures were depicted in the acclaimed 2017 BBC drama series Three Girls.
Ms Powell has responded to a backlash against her Radio 4 remarks by posting on X, formerly Twitter: 'In the heat of a discussion on AQ, I would like to clarify that I regard issues of child exploitation & grooming with the utmost seriousness.
'I'm sorry if this was unclear. I was challenging the political point scoring around it, not the issue itself.
'As a constituency MP I've dealt with horrendous cases. This Gvt is acting to get the truth, and deliver justice.'
Downing Street has risked further enflaming the controversy, after being challenged over Ms Powell's suggestion that the grooming gangs issue was being 'weaponised'.
A No. 10 spokesman said in reply: 'It's obviously disappointing for people to do so. But the Prime Minister is focused on taking the action that is needed to deliver for victims rather than on political point scoring.'
When asked by reporters who was doing so, the spokesman added: 'I think any political point scoring on an issue such as this is disappointing. The Government is focused on taking action to deliver justice for victims.'
Sarah Wilson, a victim of the Rotherham scandal, has said Ms Powell's comments at the weekend showed what survivors have been 'up against all these years' and why they have not been 'listened to – they never cared and never will'.
And another Rotherham victim today told MailOnline of her anger at the response, with Elizabeth Harper, not her real name, saying: 'Lucy Powell's comments were said so confidently.
Downing Street has said Sir Keir Starmer (pictured last Friday in Bedfordshire) is 'focused on taking the action that is needed to deliver for victims rather than on political point scoring'
'It is clear to me and others who have been wildly affected by this heinous crime that this was a wider opinion of the Labour group and also that it appears this is how it's spoken about.
'Why is it being "weaponised"? Is this because people are acknowledging what we've been through?
'It's not been weaponised. People are scared and worried, not just for the survivors but for the future generations.
'This is a crime that needs dealing with - instead they continue to let people of this country down.'
At least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
MailOnline previously revealed how one of Elizabeth's attackers had been recalled to a category-B prison after being spotted less than a mile from her home in Rotherham - despite legal conditions barring him from a return to the town.
Taxi driver Asghar Bostan served four and a half years of a nine-year term handed down in 2018, after being convicted of two rapes of a girl under 16 between 2000 and 2002.
Sir Keir was accused in January this year of 'smear tactics' after claiming people wanting an inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal were jumping on a 'far-right bandwagon'.
The PM also defended his record as former Director of Public Prosecutions after Tesla tycoon Elon Musk suggested he was 'complicit' in a failure to tackle abuse.
He said: 'What I won't tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention when those politicians sat in government for 14 long years, tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about it – now so desperate for attention that they're amplifying what the far-right is saying.'
Downing Street then insisted Sir Keir's remarks were focused on the Conservatives rather than campaigners and victims pushing for an inquiry.
Cabinet colleague and Health Secretary Wes Streeting has this week said Ms Powell was 'mortified' about her Any Questions comments and was 'right' to apologise.
He also insisted on Sunday the Government took the issue of child sexual exploitation 'extremely seriously' and was 'making real changes that will help to support victims'.
The issue of grooming – including by gangs of Pakistani origin – has been put back into the spotlight after Labour denied a request for a new Whitehall-led inquiry.
The Government instead ordered locally led probes, although Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a 'rapid audit' into the scale of the issue.
The Conservatives' Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has branded the Government 'shameful' for 'standing by' Ms Powell following her weekend comments.
Labour minister Lucy Powell posted on X, formerly Twitter, about her earlier remarks on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions programme - prompting further responses from critics
He said: 'If Lucy Powell won't resign, Keir Starmer should fire her if he is serious about this issue.
'Wes Streeting saying this was just a "slip of the tongue" is an unacceptable excuse – especially given Labour's refusal to hold a proper national inquiry and Starmer's "far-Right bandwagon" smear in January.'
Channel 4 last month broadcast a documentary called Groomed: A National Scandal that included testimony from five women telling of their ordeals - as well as footage of a convicted grooming gang rapist complaining about his treatment behind bars.
Irfan Khan, 37, from Batley in West Yorkshire, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with a five-year extended licence, for three offences of rape and making threats to kill - but a new investigation revealed his moans to supporters when calling from jail.
He was part of a group of more than 20 sexual predators locked up last year for a total of 346 years after eight young girls in West Yorkshire were raped, abused and trafficked across 13 years.
Khan was heard phoning from prison and telling supporters of a campaign group called Fighting For Fair Trials: 'Since I've been inside there's been so many come inside all of a sudden – it's been like a domino. Half of Dewsbury's inside.
'And it's really unfair – you know, it's just unfair. I've done nothing wrong and I've sat here for 15 months.'
The Government has been facing calls this year - including from X's billionaire owner Elon Musk - for new inquiries into the handling of grooming gangs exposed across the country, in cases where the abusers were predominantly Asian men.
Grooming gang victims Chantelle (left) and Jade (right) have spoken out in a new Channel 4 documentary called Groomed:
In January last year a report found young girls were 'left at the mercy' of paedophile grooming gangs for years in Rochdale because of failings by senior police and council bosses.
The damning 173-page review covered 2004 to 2013 and set out multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police and apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse in Rochdale.
Successive police operations were launched, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation within the area.
The study followed reports by the same authors on grooming in Manchester and Oldham, which found authorities had again failed children, l eaving them in the clutches of paedophiles.
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