Sarah Ingham: Labour must wake up to the terrible local failures that have made a national scandal

Dr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.

 “Loose lips sink ships.”

In the week marking VE Day, it is timely to remember that in war-time Britain everyone was urged to speak with caution.

Until last Friday, Lucy Powell was known to most of us only for her risible claim that unless the Winter Fuel Allowance was removed from pensioners, there would be a run on the pound.

On Radio4’s Any Questions, the Manchester Central MP turned full fishwife, berating fellow panellist Tim Montgomerie. The ever-courteous ConHome founder was trying to talk about Groomed:  A National Scandal.  Powell was having none of it. Accusing him of wanting to “blow that little trumpet”, Liability Lucy jeered “Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?”

Edge of the City (2004) by filmmaker Anna Hall was among the first accounts of the gangs targeting vulnerable girls. At the 11^th hour, its broadcast was cancelled on the advice of West Yorkshire police, fearing public disorder. Channel4 is currently showing Hall’s follow-up documentary Groomed. It tells five gang victims’ stories.

One, Chantelle, was 11 years old when the abuse began. Like many others, she was supposed to be in the care of local authorities. Care homes, councils, social services and police forces failed thousands of girls like her. Victim-shaming was endemic. These children were routinely perceived as troublemakers, bringing upon themselves being trafficked, drugged, raped, beaten up, pimped and psychologically abused.

Last month, PM Starmer wanted Adolescence  to be shown in schools. Bizarrely, he described the Netflix drama as a documentary, although like Pinocchio it is fiction. But if Powell’s reaction last Friday is any guide, the government views a true story about real children’s suffering as radioactive – to be avoided.

Groomed is a must-watch, although deeply uncomfortable viewing. The crimes, and the extent of them, committed against vulnerable children are so bad, some tip into evil. The years of obfuscation, blind-eyes, indifference and all-round arse-covering by local officialdom is both shocking and saddening.

The government wants to talk up fiction relating to the online world, but play down rape, trafficking and possibly murder that occurred in the real world. It seems that the penny has yet to drop for PM Starmer, Powell and their colleagues that, in the context of perceptions about the abuse of children, there is no comforting Blair-era third way.

You’re on the side of victims or their abusers.

The government has repeatedly brushed aside calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. About 15 years ago, similarly dismissive police officers in Rotherham waved away youth worker Jayne Senior’s concerns about child exploitation. She was allegedly told: “Stop rocking the multi-cultural boat.”

Most grooming gang members have been of Pakistani Moslem heritage. Labour’s dependence on the Moslem vote both locally and nationally might explain its inquiry aversion.  The Labour Muslim Network points out that, of 500 Moslem councillors, 75 per cent are Labour supporters.

People of shared faith are not a monolithic bloc, however. Many Moslems could be unhappy about authorities’ reluctance properly to address and resolve the gang issue.  Dr Wajid Akhter,  Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, stated that Moslem or otherwise, one groomer is one too many. As he correctly suggests: “Using the heinous acts of a few to misrepresent an entire faith and an ethnicity is also unacceptable.”

In 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (the Jay Inquiry) finally reported. One welcome result of the Government’s avoidance of a public inquiry was its recent pledge to act on two of Jay’s recommendations: establishing a Child Protection Agency and mandatory reporting of abuse.

While the grooming gangs’ scandal highlights that one cohort of victims – mainly troubled working-class girls – were failed by the local officialdom in perhaps 50 towns and cities, the Jay Inquiry looked at the issue of child abuse more widely.  It found too often that Britain’s institutions put their own reputation ahead of children’s safety.

Announced last month, the government’s five local inquiries satisfy no-one.

Like the late Robin Cook MP, Lucy Powell is Leader of the House of Commons. In March 2003 he quit the Blair government over the Iraq War. His resignation speech is included in the BBC’s list of memorable speeches made to Parliament. In contrast, Labour and opposition party strategists must be wondering about the damage being done by Powell’s silent presence on the front bench caught on camera every PMQs.

Would a public inquiry into the grooming gangs deliver justice for their victims? Perhaps. Professor Jay notes: “The effective protection of children from harm is an essential feature of a civilised society.”

Let’s all blow a trumpet to that.