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Sir Keir Starmer has been condemned for refusing to participate in a major new Channel 4 film about the grooming gang scandal. Critics have compared the Prime Minister’s response to the film to his reaction to the Netflix fictional drama Adolescence, which he suggested should be shown in every classroom.

Groomed: A National Scandal aired on Channel 4 on Wednesday. Viewers were in tears as they heard about the harrowing death of a teenage girl injected with a lethal dose of heroin by her abuser. They also heard from five now adult women who described in their own words how they were “silenced” as children when they tried to report their abusers, who gang-raped, tortured, drugged and imprisoned them before selling them out for sex.

It has now emerged that Sir Keir rejected an interview request for the film, while denying that his Government is not covering up an inquiry into the scandal because of the role of Labour-run councils.

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp blasted: “Starmer thinks a fictional drama should be shown in every school.

“But he refused to appear in a documentary about actual rape gangs, covering the period he was DPP (director of public prosecutions).

“He refuses a statutory national inquiry into the scandal. Why is he perpetuating the cover-up?”

Tory MP Katie Lam added: “Our Prime Minister has time to host a meeting in No 10 for the writers of a fictional drama.

“But apparently he’s too busy to contribute to a devastating documentary about mass child rape and the greatest failure of the British state in living memory.

“What the hell is going on?”

While former Home Secretary Suella Braverman added: “Did the Prime Minister watch the documentary last night? And will he hold a summit in Downing Street with its makers?

“And will it be shown across all schools? Let’s see”

The PM’s spokesman said he had not asked Sir Keir whether he had watched the documentary.

But he said: “The Prime Minister has long worked on issues of grooming gangs. He has spoken extensively about his experience as a prosecutor.”

He added: “Government has set out the action it is taking to root out this vile crime.”

The spokesman was unable to confirm whether the documentary’s makers would be invited into No 10, as the makers of the drama Adolescence had been.

However, he praised the film’s makers, saying: “When it comes to this scandal, anyone shining a light on this scandal is doing good work and it is one of the great failures of our country’s history.”

Sir Keir has said Adolescence should be shown in schools. But the spokesperson said there was no need to do the same for the grooming documentary “because we have already taken significant action on this scandal. This is not new. But obviously anything that brings more focus on this scandal is welcome”.