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Grooming gangs inquiry: Shadow Safeguarding Minister casts doubt on 'credibility' of nationwide investigation
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Jun 17, 2025
The Shadow Minister for Safeguarding has claimed child rape cover-ups occurred because people feared being labelled "racist" more than they feared failing to protect children.Katie Lam told GB News: "Unfortunately, and sadly, I think it says something quite dark about where we've ended up in Britain on a few different issues, that so many people were more comfortable aiding and abetting, facilitating and covering up mass child rape than they were of being accused of being racist."FULL STORY HERE.
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It was remarkable, really, and in lots of ways, good
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We welcome, and I welcome, and victims and survivors very much welcome
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the news that she had to bring us. But it was amazing to hear her say it just a few weeks and months
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after the government had been saying the opposite. Well, it is extraordinary, isn't it
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Because when people were calling for an investigation in January, they were far right, and now it's government policy
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I mean, this seems to be a little inconsistent, to say the least
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To say the very least, and there are specific members of Parliament
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Sean Davies today, who's now the Member of Parliament for Telford, who previously wrote a letter to previous Conservative government ministers
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saying to them, there's nothing to see here, please don't hold an inquiry in Telford
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today saying that, effectively, he'd been calling for this all along. Now we welcome the government change of heart but that not true And it really important that we think about the victims of this who have been so badly treated and this comes out in the Casey report that they were called child prostitutes
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some of them have been prosecuted for offences. Doesn't it need to be at the forefront of any report
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how things can be put right for those who suffered from the rape gangs
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Absolutely, and that's why it's so important that the government is honest about what they have been saying
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and why I think that the prime minister and the Home Secretary should explain why they've changed their minds
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These victims and survivors have, for years and in some cases decades
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heard people rubbish what they had to say, make it seem like they were liars
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like exactly as you say that some of these victims were child prostitutes
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that they were doing things that they wanted to do. And after all of this time of being disbelieved
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if people have changed their minds, that is wonderful. But to do so credibly, they need to explain why
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And they need to give us the details of this inquiry. Who going to lead it Where exactly will it cover They say it going to be national but the report itself looks like it might actually be a coordination of local inquiries We need to see this information
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for what the government is saying to be credible. And what do you think it says about the culture of the nation, that there was such a desire
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to cover this up in so many different towns across the country
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unfortunately i think and sadly i think it says something quite dark about where we've ended up in
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in britain on on a few different issues that so many people were more comfortable
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aiding and abetting facilitating and covering up mass child rape than they were of being accused of
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being racist. And we know that that's the case. That is well documented. There are documents
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there are e-mails that people wrote at the time. West Midlands police back in 2010 suppressed
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a report saying that there were Asian Pakistani men who were grooming girls outside care homes outside the gates of playgrounds and schools And we know from what people said at the time that that report was suppressed because people were worried about inflaming community tensions
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And they were more worried about that than they were about our children. And did that go all the way through
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Because we were in government at the time, not necessarily either of us personally
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but the Conservatives from 2010 to 2024. were we part of this concern of not wanting to inflame racial tension
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or did we simply not know? Was it ignorance or was it being part of an unsatisfactory culture
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As you say, I wasn't a Member of Parliament then so the truthful answer is I don't know
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but if I were to guess, I would say it's probably a little bit of both
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It's human nature not to look straight at things that you find difficult or uncomfortable
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But there were definitely brave people in the last government. Suella Brubman, the former Home Secretary, started the Grooming Gangs Task Force
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She spoke out about this issue quite a lot and was at the time, you know, rubbished and ridiculed
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So it's amazing to see how far we've come
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