By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-01-10 19:01:13 | Updated at 2025-01-10 22:35:24
3 hours ago
The chair of the Women's Policy Centre has strongly criticised Sir Keir Starmer over his stance on grooming gangs, rejecting suggestions that calls for an inquiry are driven by far-right sentiment.
Speaking on GB News, Paola Diana said the Labour leader was "absolutely mistaken" in his position.
"76 per cent of the population wants it [an inquiry]. It's not just far-right people. We are the ones with common sense, the ones with a soul, the ones with a heart," Diana said.
A YouGov survey commissioned by the Women's Policy Centre found more than three-quarters of Britons support demands for a national investigation into grooming gangs.
Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure
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New police data has revealed grooming gangs are committing almost two child sexual abuse offences every day in England and Wales.
The Hydrant Programme, analysing data from all 43 police forces, found 717 child exploitation grooming crimes in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024.
The programme represents the first national police scheme to collect and analyse "group-based" child sexual abuse, including perpetrators' ethnic backgrounds.
Group-based offending accounted for 4,228 offences in 2023, with grooming gangs responsible for 717 of these cases.
Diana joined Martin Daubney on GB NEws
GB NEWS
Diana warned of ongoing abuse across the country, telling GB News: "These people are grooming and raping others girls right now, as we speak, in 50 or more places around the UK."
She criticised the far-left's approach to discussing the issue, saying: "They don't even want to use the word Pakistani. They don't even want to use the word Muslim or the word raping."
"They're not just grooming these people, they're raping, drugging, torturing and also killing. Sometimes little girls," she added.
Labour MPs voted down a Conservative amendment to the Children's Wellbeing Bill on Wednesday that would have pushed for a statutory inquiry into historic child sexual exploitation.
The motion was defeated by 364 to 111 votes, prompting accusations that Sir Keir had committed an "act of cowardice".
Sir Keir argued that victims wanted "action now, not the delay of a further inquiry", while No 10 claimed the amendment would "kill the Bill".
Andy Burnham, Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, broke ranks to support calls for a "limited national inquiry".
