Minister denies Labour ‘governing by social media’ after new grooming gangs review ordered – UK politics live
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Lisa Nandy has claimed “we’re not a government that governs by social media” despite it appearing that home secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday announced an urgent national review of the scale of grooming gangs after pressure on internet platforms driven by US-based tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the culture secretary said:. We’re not a government that governs by social media. We govern for the real world. Victims have been warning over and over again, telling the same story about the systems that were supposed to protect them, protecting themselves, and young women who weren’t believed because they were young, they were female, and they were working-class.
We know what needs to be done, and as a government we are wasting no time in getting on and making sure that we deliver for those young women. Nandy said there was “far too much heat on social media [and] not enough light,” adding “I don’t agree for a moment that this government is being driven by what happens on social media.”.
On Thursday, Cooper said Louise Casey, who produced a report into sexual abuse in Rotherham, would lead a three-month review into what was known about the scale and extent of grooming gangs. Cooper said Casey would examine data not available to the initial national inquiry into gangs led by Prof Alexis Jay, and would look into the ethnicity and demographics of abusers and victims, as well as “the cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending, including amongst different ethnic groups”.
