𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Keir Starmer’s contemptuous response to a female MP talking about grooming gangs summed up everything that is wrong with his attitude to women. Conservative Katie Lam raised concerns that the inquiry being held into the industrialised rape of young girls is fatally flawed as it will not address the role that race and religion played in motivating these crimes or lead to prosecutions for those involved in the cover-up. The Tory used Prime Minister’s Questions to ask for the terms of reference for the probe, which sets out the limits of what can be looked at, to include those areas.

Although the inquiry will “consider” the background of the rapists, who mainly came from Pakistani/Muslim backgrounds, Ms Lam and some of the survivors fear it will not get to grips with why the crimes happened. Starmer responded to the question by insisting victims and survivors will be at the “heart of the process” and convictions are now at their highest level ever, but failed to address the issue.

Working himself up into a state of righteous indignation, he went on: “But forgive me if I do not take suggestions from the honourable lady, who said that people legally settled here should ‘go home’ to ensure that the UK is ‘culturally coherent’. That is a grotesque way to talk about our friends and neighbours.”

Starmer continued by saying he suspects that when Ms Lam next gets to ask a question, “she will be sitting on the benches up there”, pointing up to the Reform MPs. It is a fascinating insight into what really angers Starmer. He calmly talks about the inquiry, saving his fury for the woman who asks the question.

Ms Lam believes the “anti-racism” instinct on the Left and in the public sector has overridden the duty to keep children safe. She says that the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs will end up being a bureaucratic exercise instead of an attempt to really get to the bottom of what went on.

Last month, the Express revealed how survivors involved in the inquiry were told not to mention race. Ellie Reynolds, 25, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, said a liaison officer sent emails telling her how “your reply should look” when responding to questions. “We were told on a [Microsoft] Teams meeting not to talk about the ethnicity of the men who raped us – which made us think why?” she added.

“The problem that we’ve got is that, if we call out a problem of being raped by an Asian male, we’re deemed as racist. But the same Asian male is okay to sit and call you ‘white trash’, treat you like you’re disposable, and emphasise how much they hate white girls and white women.”

Reynolds is one of three members of the Victims and Survivors Liaison Panel who resigned last year over the “toxic”, “controlling” and “stage-managed” inquiry. They asked to meet with Starmer but “have not had a response”. Reynolds added: “That basically just proves that he’s not bothered. He doesn’t care.”

Earlier this week, the High Court allowed a judicial review of whether the government failed to act on the recommendations into a previous inquiry into child sexual abuse. It was told the failure to implement the changes has “effectively allowed the abuse” of thousands of children.

Concluding in 2022, the inquiry lasted seven years at a cost of £200million and it was launched to examine how public and private institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse. The charitable foundation set up by Rochdale grooming gangs whistleblower Maggie Oliver is behind the challenge.

Starmer had an opportunity at PMQs to respond to the real concerns of victims, campaigners and MPs about grooming gangs. Instead he gave a cursory, bloodless answer before launching into a political attack on the woman asking the question. Lam is a Tory opponent but she was raising a national scandal, so her political affiliation should be irrelevant.

But even when it’s his own side, Starmer has form when it comes to dismissing the concerns of women. When Rosie Duffield sensibly pointed out that men cannot become women, Starmer hung her out to dry, saying her comments were “something that shouldn’t be said”.

She was vilified in the party, had to pull out of various events after threats to her safety and now sits as an independent. Starmer’s dismissive treatment of women just shows what kind of man he really is.