Starmer defends Labour's handling of grooming scandal, as Badenoch calls for national inquiry

Keir Starmer clashes with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister's Questions over the grooming gangs scandal

Transcript

00:00On Monday, the Prime Minister's Safeguarding Minister admitted on the floor of the House

00:06that there was a cover-up of the child rape gang scandal. Does the Prime Minister think

00:11we should expose this cover-up? Mr Speaker, this is obviously a serious issue.

00:18I oversaw the first grooming gang prosecution which was in Rochdale more than a decade ago.

00:26There is a contrast here because the Leader of the Opposition, when she was Minister for

00:30Children, Women and Equalities, never raised this issue in the House in three years.

00:36The Shadow Home Secretary held 352 external meetings during 20 months. How many were on this issue?

00:45Not one. They failed, of course, to implement a single recommendation for the independent

00:50inquiry into child sex abuse. Mr Speaker, my position is absolutely clear. Where there is

00:55evidence, the police should investigate and there should be appropriate prosecutions. That is

01:00route number one. Route number two, we should implement existing recommendations which did

01:06expose what went wrong. Those recommendations were not implemented by the last government.

01:11They are being implemented by this government. We are providing for local inquiries. We are

01:16investing more in delivering truth and justice for victims than the party opposite did in 14 long years.