Keir Starmer likely to face PMQs grilling on claims the inquiry has descended into ‘chaos’
Good morning. One of the reasons why Shabana Mahmood was appointed home secretary was because, as justice secretary, when the Tories came at her with a “two-tier justice” attack line that was being enthusiastically embraced by the rightwing media, she saw them off swiftly and effectively (essentially, by coopting the argument and responding). Today she is performing a similar rebuttal operation on the grooming gangs inquiry, which is another area where the Daily Mail/GB News etc are on the warpath and the government is floundering.
Here is the Mail’s splash.
‘Chaos’ might be a bit strong, but it’s not wholly unreasonable as a description of what is happening. Keir Starmer announced a national grooming gangs inquiry in June (having previously opposed the idea). Any inquiry like this will only be worth doing if it commands the trust of survivors. The government has not chosen a chair yet, or agreed terms of reference. But it has an oversight panel including around 30 survivors, and over the last three days at least three of them have resigned, complaining about the likely candidates for chair, suggestions that the inquiry will be extended to cover other child abuse, not just grooming gangs, and concerns about the ethnicity of offenders being downplayed. One of two reported candidates for the chair’s post has now pulled out, leaving Jim Gamble, a former police officer and former head the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command centre as the only person being tipped for the top job. This is problematic because some survivors are opposed to someone with a police background having that role, and the Conservatives are calling for a judge to be put in charge.
