The British Parliament has shut down efforts to launch an inquiry into predominantly Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs preying on predominantly white working-class girls after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party voted against them. The Conservative Party’s reasoned amendment to Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill calling for an inquiry was decisively rejected, 364 votes to 111, with only Conservative and Reform Party lawmakers voting in favor.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch argued for the inquiry during Prime Minister’s Questions, warning of potential perceptions of a “cover-up” and accusing the government of avoiding scrutiny of Labour figures potentially involved. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer responded, misleadingly, that multiple inquiries into grooming gangs had already taken place—however, none of these were national in scope, and none have resulted in public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to the abuse facing criminal sanctions.
The reasoned amendment would have stopped the progress of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, urging the Labour government to instead “develop new legislative proposals for children’s wellbeing at the same time as establishing a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs.”
Following reports that Labour’s Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, had refused to approve a local inquiry into grooming gang abuse in Oldham, England, tech billionaire Elon Musk began pressing the issue on his X platform, causing Britain’s right-leaning press and politicians to take up the issue.
Labour threatened to cut security ties with the United States this week unless President-elect Donald J. Trump distances himself from Musk’s views, given he is set to join the administration as a co-leader of the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.
