This is Katie Lam MP for Weald in Kent writing in the Sun newspaper last night, following her tackling the Prime Minister at PQT earlier in the day. Keir Starmer was rude, insulting and lied about her. Watch that video which I cannot embed. Kier Starmer really does have a problem with women. More about his liking for these ‘friends and neighbours’ below.
THE crimes committed by Britain’s grooming and rape gangs are the worst in living memory.
For decades, thousands of children across dozens of towns were groomed, trafficked and raped by gangs of men, most of whom were Pakistani Muslims.
Far too many people within the British state turned a blind eye, or actively worked to cover up these crimes, because they feared being called racist or just didn’t believe the victims.
Police forces, local councils and care homes were all complicit in this cover-up.
The victims of the grooming gangs were let down and ignored by the very institutions that were supposed to protect them.
Last year the Government was dragged, kicking and screaming, into holding a full national inquiry into this issue.
After accusing those who were calling for an inquiry of “jumping on a far-right bandwagon” in January, by June even the Prime Minister had been forced to accept that these crimes really did happen, and that they really were covered up. . . the announcement of a full national inquiry offered hope that justice might finally be done . . . But the devil is in the detail.
In the autumn, a number of survivors resigned from the Government’s “survivor liaison panel”, raising concerns that they were being manipulated into broadening the scope of the review beyond grooming gangs.
And at the end of last year, when the Government finally released the details of the inquiry, it quickly became clear that they just weren’t serious about uncovering the truth.
Victims are now faced with the prospect of another cover-up.
We now know that the inquiry is set to be chaired by Baroness Longfield, a Labour peer who has long campaigned for “racial inclusion” in our education system.
Given this background, how can we possibly expect her to deal head-on with difficult issues around race and religion, or to properly investigate the role that Labour-run councils played in covering up this abuse?
The inquiry will also be bound by its “terms of reference”, which set out what will be investigated, and to what end.
The draft terms produced by the Government are nothing short of a disaster.
If adopted, the inquiry would spend no time looking at the role of race or religion in motivating these crimes, would not lead to any prosecutions of those involved in the cover-up, and would have no authority to look at grooming gang cases which took place before the year 2000, despite the fact these crimes have been taking place for many decades.
It wouldn’t cover every local authority with a history of grooming gang cases or explore why many judges gave such soft sentences to grooming gang perpetrators.
It wouldn’t explore links between grooming gangs and organised crime, or even seek to define what a “grooming gang” is in the first place.
Instead of a proper inquiry designed to uncover the truth, the Government is planning to turn this process into a bureaucratic exercise in “lessons learned”.
It is simply not good enough.
The Government is holding a consultation on these terms, with a deadline for submissions on Friday. Any member of the public can submit their thoughts, and demand that the Government carries out this inquiry properly.
If you agree, you can put in your details — name, email address and postcode — and the site will fill out the consultation for you.
It only takes a moment, but if enough people do this, we can force the Government to change the terms of reference, and deliver real justice for the victims of the grooming gangs.
This is the link to Grooming Gang Justice
And this is Miss Lam earlier this afternoon talking to GB News
Speaking to GB News following the tense exchange, the Conservative MP accused the Prime Minister of being too “uncomfortable” to discuss the grooming gangs scandal.
During PMQs, Ms Lam asked the Prime Minister about the “fatally flawed” grooming gangs inquiry and whether the “final terms of reference will reflect the concerns” of victims and survivors.
Hitting back at the Tory MP, Sir Keir jibed: “Baroness Longfield is now beginning the work of the inquiry, with victims and survivors at the heart of the process.
“But forgive me if I do not take suggestions from the honourable member who said people legally and settled here should ‘go home to ensure that the UK is culturally coherent’.
“That is a grotesque way to talk about our friends and neighbours, and I rather suspect that her next question will come from her sitting up there [points to Reform UK benches].”
Speaking out on Sir Keir’s response, Ms Lam declared that he is “fundamentally uncomfortable and incapable of having a proper discussion about the rape and grooming gangs”.
She told GB News: “This is the biggest hate crime, the biggest sex crime, the biggest state cover up in our country’s history. He’s the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He should be able to engage on this issue without just attacking whoever is bringing it up.”
My contempt for Kier Starmer dates back to his time at the DPP; it’s petty compared to a rape gang and I won’t bore you with it. President Trump is disappointed in him. I didn’t expect anything better but it didn’t expect this bad, so soon. This article from the Telegraph yesterday focuses on President Trump pondering how much the Starmer government depends on the Muslim vote as affecting their support for the Israel/US intervention in Iran. It applies just as much to the lack of robust attention to the rape grooming gangs and the general pandering to Islam.
Why Starmer cannot afford to lose more Muslim voters. Data shows this community has the power to deliver a devastating blow to Labour at the ballot box
Asked by a journalist on Tuesday if Sir Keir was pandering to Muslim voters, the US president said: “It could be.”
Whether or not the Prime Minister is “pandering”, he will be well aware of the impact the community’s support – or lack of it – will have on his chances of clinging to power.
The British Election Study found that 80 per cent of Muslims voted for the Labour Party at the 2019 general election, but this changed radically in 2024.
This key group for Labour turned towards pro-Gaza candidates because of the Government’s support for Israel after it went to war with Hamas in 2023. The proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation has only accelerated this electoral migration.
The Gorton and Denton by-election on Thursday – in a constituency where 28 per cent of the population is Muslim – gave No 10 further cause for concern. The Green Party won after being accused of running a cynical “sectarian” campaign by urging voters in the Manchester suburb to “punish” Labour for Gaza.
Muslims’ influence on elections is often accentuated because first-past-the-post rewards concentrated support, which tends to happen in urban areas.
While Muslim people made up 6.5 per cent of the population overall in 2021, 59 per cent of the population in Bradford West is Muslim. In Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, it is 54 per cent.
Across the 111 constituencies where more than 10 per cent of the population is Muslim, more than half a million votes went to independent candidates or the pro-Palestine Workers Party of Britain at the 2024 general election.
The Prime Minister and seven of his ministers sit in seats with Muslim populations of at least 10 per cent. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, sits in Ilford North, a 31 per cent Muslim constituency. He has the slimmest majority of all: he ended up just 528 votes ahead of Leanne Mohamad (a thoroughly nasty piece of work) standing as an independent.
Many other Labour MPs will be feeling considerably less secure.
As the old saying goes, when you get flak you know you are over the target.
