‘Victims deserve to find out the truth’, says Shadow Home Secretary

We spoke to the Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who joins us from Parliament.

Cathy Newman: Chris Philp, the former Norfolk Chief Constable, Simon Bailey, was just saying that the police have really got their act together on investigating grooming gangs now. So the work should be for them rather than for an inquiry, shouldn’t it?

Chris Philp: Look, the last government did set up the Grooming Gangs Taskforce following the IICSA report. And in its first year of operation, it led to 550 arrests of perpetrators. So the work was done by the last government and is continuing today. But this is about getting the truth about the failings of the past. You know, thousands and thousands of young, vulnerable, early teenage girls were systemically raped by gangs of men, principally of Pakistani heritage. And local authorities – the police, the Crown Prosecution Service – failed to investigate, failed to believe them, failed to prosecute the criminals, and in some cases even actively covered up what was going on for reasons of cultural sensitivity or not wanting to be, which is a ridiculous phrase in this context, perceived as being racist. Those were terrible, shocking failures, morally reprehensible – and the victims deserve to find out the truth. Those responsible, those people who were in positions of authority and positions of responsibility at the time, who failed these young girls or even actively covered up what was going on, should be held to account. Not a single person, individual in authority, has been held to account. There is a criminal offence, misconduct in public office. And if this inquiry, national inquiry, had happened as I wanted it to and many others wanted it to, including victims, then there is a chance some of those people responsible for covering this up or for ignoring it would be prosecuted.

Cathy Newman: You’ve now tabled an amendment to try and put this inquiry into place and that’s been voted down. But had it been passed, the entire Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would have fallen. That brought in measures such as safeguards for home educated children. It would compel local authorities to establish safeguarding teams. It would introduce a unique number for every child so that vulnerable children are better protected. You would have jeopardised that for what your opponents say is simple political opportunism.

Chris Philp: No. Look, standing up for victims who need to get to the truth is not opportunism. And I completely disagree with what Keir Starmer said on Monday when he said that people who were raising this issue were from the far right. That is an outrageous slur – a slur and a smear.

Cathy Newman: He didn’t quite say that. But the thing is, where were you, Chris Philp, and where was Kemi Badenoch, your leader, where was Robert Jenrick, who also stood for leadership and is now one of your shadow cabinet colleagues, where were they standing up for victims in parliament? None of you have.

Chris Philp: I don’t think that’s true. I mean, when I was a minister in the Home Office, we had enormously regular meetings on things like Operation Soteria, which you might have heard of, which was a specialist unit designed to identify and prosecute rape and serious sexual assault.

Cathy Newman: Yeah and you have not once spoken about grooming gangs in the Commons since you were elected as an MP until the last few days. You haven’t, have you?

Chris Philp: The work I’ve just described to you in the Home Office was chasing after perpetrators of these offences, including gangs. For example, we met on a monthly basis chasing after these issues. And I told you the last government set up a Grooming Gangs Taskforce…

Cathy Newman: It’s funny you didn’t mention this in parliament though.

Chris Philp: …that arrested 550 people. But we do need to get to the truth around this. The inquiry – the IICSA inquiry – only looked at six towns and some of these local inquiries, like the Manchester one that the prime minister mentioned today at PMQs, don’t have the legal powers that are needed in order to compel witnesses to come and give evidence, to get documents. And in fact, the chairs of that inquiry resigned because they couldn’t get hold of the evidence. Only a national public inquiry can get hold of evidence.