Labour minister instructed to resign over ‘sickening’ grooming gangs remarks | Politics | News | EUROtoday

The Conservatives are calling for a Labour minister to resign after her feedback on grooming gangs this week. Lucy Powell, chief of the House of Commons, made the remarks after political commentator Tim Montgomerie raised the difficulty on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions.

Mr Montgomerie, who switched allegiance from the Conservatives to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in December, started to say: “I don’t know if you saw the documentary on Channel 4 about rape gangs.” This was in reference to the latest programme Groomed: A National Scandal, which targeted on 5 ladies who have been sexually abused by rape gangs.

In the documentary, the younger ladies inform their tales of surviving “unimaginable abuse and rape” by a grooming gang over a interval of 20 years.

The present’s description notes that “failures of police and social services continue to this day”.

Ms Powell responded: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let’s get that dog whistle out.”

The Government has come beneath fireplace from political opponents over the dealing with of historic intercourse abuse circumstances within the UK.

After Ms Powell’s feedback, ConservativeHome founder Mr Montgomerie continued: “There is an actual difficulty the place… There have been so many individuals in native authorities, within the authorities, who, for good purpose, have been fearful about upsetting neighborhood tensions, that these ladies went undefended.”

Now, some politicians are calling for the Manchester Central MP’s resignation, including Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.

Mr Philp said in a statement: “This shocking outburst from a Labour cabinet minister belittles the thousands of girls and women who were raped by grooming gangs over decades.

“We have consistently called for a national enquiry in parliament, which has been blocked by Labour ministers who don’t seem to know or care about the disgusting crimes which have been perpetrated.

“Anyone who has seen the shocking Channel 4 documentary will know that it is clearer than ever that this is not a ‘dog whistle’. To dismiss thousands of victims who were raped and the cover up that followed is sickening. She should resign.”

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Ms Powell said: “In the heat of a discussion on AQ, I would like to clarify that I regard issues of child exploitation and grooming with the utmost seriousness. I’m sorry if this was unclear.

“I used to be difficult the political level scoring round it, not the difficulty itself. As a constituency MP I’ve handled horrendous circumstances. This Gvt is performing to get to the reality, and ship justice.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting stated he thought Ms Powell’s job was secure on Sunday morning.

Speaking on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, he stated “all of us make errors” and that he didn’t suppose Ms Powell “intended to imply” that mentioning the subject of grooming gangs was a “dog whistle”.

However, he stated it was “right” for her to apologise.

The Daily Express has contacted the workplace of the chief of the House of Commons for remark.

Sir Keir Starmer’s authorities promised 5 native inquiries into grooming gangs in January, whereas tech billionaire Elon Musk accused the prime minister of being “complicit” within the authorities’ failure to guard victims and prosecute abusers whereas he was director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013.

Sir Keir has defended his file, saying it reveals he tackled the difficulty head-on.