The confusion over the investigations began after Home Office Minister Jess Phillips failed to provide an update on the reviews of cases to Parliament and said local authorities would be free to spend the $5.6 million in funding they had been given to tackle widespread grooming gangs as they wished.
That led to accusations that the government was diluting the importance of the local investigation by giving councils choice over how to use the funds.
Then, Sir Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that Labour dropped the grooming gang investigations out of fear of alienating Pakistani voters, whom the party needs to stay in power. Phillips called Labour’s response “utterly shameful” because it was “so obviously political.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper hit back on Thursday, denying allegations Labour was watering down its investigation and calling it “total nonsense” on BBC Today.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation and, sadly, party political misinformation being put out about this, and it’s just fundamentally wrong,” she said. “So not only are we continuing with the plans for local inquiries, as we set out in January, that has not changed. We’re also saying we will support areas that want to do more to work with victims and survivors. That has not changed. But most crucially of all, we are supporting increased police investigations into these vile crimes. We have got increased investigations taking place.”
The “grooming gang” scandal in Britain has tapped into fears about multiculturalism, mass immigration, and nefarious political motives that have led to thousands of young rape victims never receiving justice.
The scandal dates back to 1997 when thousands of white English girls were sexually groomed and serially raped by gangs of men of mostly Pakistani Muslim descent in several towns and cities across England’s north and Midlands. The girls were also passed around, beaten, and, in some cases, tortured by these grooming groups.
At the time, Alan Edwards, a detective, claimed that everyone was “too scared to address the ethnicity factor” of the crimes because racial tensions in the area were so high.
Since then, cases involving these rapes or gang rapes of mostly young, white, poor girls have been referred to as the “grooming gangs” scandal.
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Elon Musk waded into the controversy earlier this year, criticizing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s handling of the grooming gangs during his time as director of public prosecutions. Musk also took aim at Phillips, calling her a “rape genocide apologist” and a “witch” who “deserves to be in prison.”
Phillips called his claims “ridiculous.”