Tories’ push for new grooming inquiry would ‘kill’ child safety bill, says Phillipson
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Education secretary says plan to block legislation with call for another inquiry is ‘absolutely sickening’. The Conservatives’ push for a new national grooming inquiry that would block the child safety bill is “absolutely sickening”, Bridget Phillipson has said.
The education secretary said the opposition party’s plan to amend the government’s children wellbeing and schools bill on Wednesday, which she called the “single biggest piece of children safeguarding legislation in a generation”, would “kill it stone dead”.
The amendment Kemi Badenoch’s party will bring forward will call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”. It follows Elon Musk’s calls for a new inquiry into child grooming gangs, even though an independent investigation led by Prof Alexis Jay concluded its work in 2022.
None of its recommendations have been enacted, but Keir Starmer has vowed to do so instead of launching a new inquiry. His decision has been backed by Jay, who led the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. The expert said “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs.
Phillipson told Times Radio: “They come along today as we set out legislation to protect the very children they claim to care about and they intend to block it and kill it stone dead. It is absolutely sickening.”. She added: “We are looking right across the recommendations that Alexis Jay set out and there are crucial recommendations from the review that she carried out.
