Labour MP breaks ranks and demands Starmer launches grooming gang inquiry

Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden becomes the first Labour MP to demand an inquiry into the Asian grooming gangs that targeted white working-class girls

A Labour MP has broken ranks and demanded that Sir Keir Starmer launches a national inquiry into the Asian grooming gangs that targeted hundreds of white working-class underage girls in towns around the country.

Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden has become the first Labour MP to back an inquiry after a tumultuous week where Sir Keir and his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips were subject to attacks led by X (Twitter) boss Elon Musk over the decision not to have one.

Mr Carden told the Liverpool Echo: “The public compassion for the victims, thousands of young British working-class girls and children is real. The public call for justice must be heeded.

Labour MP Dan Carden says ‘It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial or cultural issues’ (PA)

“It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial or cultural issues or because victims were poor and working class.

“We must question and challenge the orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism that led to authorities failing to act. We need a new doctrine to take our multi-ethnic society into the future.”

The prime minister has insisted there is no need for a second inquiry and he wants to focus on delivering the 20 recommendations of the one conducted by Alexis Jay into the scandal previously.

However, last week ahead of a vote on an inquiry brought by the Tories, Ms Phillips and Downing Street suggested they might agree to an inquiry if victims’ groups wanted it.

Sir Keir, chancellor Rachel Reeves, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and health secretary Wes Streeting all abstained on the inquiry vote in the Commons.

Mr Carden added: “Both Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips have strong records in this area and yet the government has failed to take the high ground.

“It must communicate a clear message about whose side it is on and now direct the state to implement the rule of law without fear [or] favour and deliver justice.

“The prime minister must use the full power of the state to deliver justice. It must continue to unflinchingly pursue the perpetrators and bring to account those in positions of authority who turned a blind eye, failed to act, or gave political cover to the gangs.”