Another week, another extraordinary failure of the government. This time, its child sexual grooming gangs.
As an opposition backbencher Labour MP Jess Phillips was a strong advocate for justice for victims, for women’s right, and for perpetrators of appalling acts to be jailed for a very long time. Few will ever forget the grim news of prolific sexual grooming gangs in Rochdale and the subsequent enquiry. The victims were female children and young women, the perpetrators adult men. But of course, it was complicated by the fact that the men were predominantly of British Pakistani origin and identified as Muslim.
Jess Philips went on TV and social media slamming the government for not taking action and not implementing the recommendations of the report written on the decade long period of abuse up to 2014.
But of course, there have been other scandals of a similar nature. Rotherham, between 1997 and 2013 saw 1,400 children sexually exploited. In Oxford, a gang was convicted in 2013 of sexually exploiting girls as young as 11. And in Telford, up to 1,000 may have been sexually exploited over several decades.
So, when Sir Keir Starmer won the general election, there was, it seemed, no better person to be put in charge of safeguarding – the doughty, brave, and outspoken Jess Philips MP. So it was, and after she was appointed, she came out saying she would deliver a “new start tackling the national emergency of violence against women”. Yet in her first test on this specific issue of violence and sexual exploitation against young girls, she failed. Instead of ordering a national enquiry into the latest scandal of grooming in Oldham, she dodged her responsibility and passed it onto Oldham council instead. Simply unbelievable.
This has led to accusations that she is protecting vested interests. With a large Muslim demographic in her constituency, some suggest she does not want to upset her electorate. Others suggest she is protecting her boss who, whilst Director of Public Prosecutions, failed to bring prosecutions against the grooming gangs.
Whichever way we turn, the new government is getting it wrong. Even good news stories. At the investment summit earlier this year, they claim the secured £62 billion of inward investment into the UK. They failed to point out that 95% of it had been secured before the election, and their (now ex) transport secretary had nearly lost £1 billion from Dubai.
For the sake our vulnerable, our economy, and our country, let’s hope they do better in 2025.
