Pressure for a national inquiry into ‘grooming gangs’ is growing, with Nigel Farage announcing that such action would be the first policy of an incoming Reform UK government. The call was backed in the unelected House of Lords by ‘Blue Labour’ peer Lord Glasman. From the Conservative Party benches, Shadow Policing Minister Matt Vickers has called for politicians to do “whatever it takes” to end this crime.
Public demand for a national inquiry stems from the fact that such an inquiry would have statutory power to compel witness testimony. This could widen out any criminal investigations, while exposing the complicity of police forces and local authorities—including elected officials. Various political figures have doubled down on their opposition to such a process, labelling it ‘Far Right.’ Where prosecutions have gone ahead, the campaign group Fighting for Fair Trials now attacks the courts as racist and witnesses as ‘liars.’
While recent British politics is littered with public inquiries, attempts to convene one into the England-wide problem of Pakistani-led rape gangs—whose crimes often go back decades—have been thwarted. Most recently, Jess Phillips, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls (yes, really) ducked her national responsibilities by asking five (or more?) local councils to set up, at their own discretion, toothless local investigatory panels,
This seemed to infuriate Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson, who directly confronted Ms. Phillips about whether she was involved in hiding the truth, in a heated parliamentary exchange on Monday, April 28th. Once again, the impression was given that the victims, predominantly white working-class girls with troubled home lives, are being sacrificed on the altar of good (i.e. multicultural) community relations. At the 2024 general election, Phillips herself came close to losing her seat to a ‘pro-Gaza’ (i.e. communalist Muslim) candidate.
