Keir Starmer assaults these ‘spreading lies’ over little one intercourse grooming gangs after feedback from Elon Musk – UK politics reside | Politics
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Starmer hits again at Musk and Tories over rape gangs declare, attacking these ‘spreading lies’ and ‘amplifying far proper’
Beth Rigby, the Sky Information political editor, additionally asks about Elon Musk, and about his assaults on Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister.
Starmer says that he thinks most individuals are extra within the NHS “than what’s taking place on Twitter”.
However he says he does wish to handle intimately this subject.
Let me begin with this, little one sexual exploitation is totally sickening, totally sickening.
And for a lot of, a few years, too many victims have been utterly let down, let down by perverse concepts about group relations or by the concept that establishments should be protected above all else. They usually’ve not been listened to, and so they’ve not been heard.
And once I was chief prosecutor for 5 years, I tackled that head on, as a result of I might see what was taking place, and that’s why I reopened circumstances which were closed and supposedly completed. I introduced the primary main prosecution of an Asian grooming gang within the explicit case – it was in Rochdale, but it surely was the primary of its form …
We modified, or I modified, the entire prosecution strategy, as a result of I wished to problem, and did problem the myths and stereotypes that have been stopping these victims being heard.
So we modified your complete strategy, not with out criticism on the time, I would add.
However once I left workplace, we had the best variety of little one sexual abuse circumstances being prosecuted on document.
Now that document shouldn’t be secret as a public servant, it’s all it’s there for all of you or everyone to see.
I additionally known as for obligatory reporting of kid sexual abuse. I’ve known as for that decade in the past. The Tories did nothing about that, for these 10 lengthy years, together with when the Jay report got here out.
Having defended his document as DPP, Starmer goes on to assault those that have criticised him and Jess Phillips. He doesn’t title Elon Musk, however he’s clearly referring to him. In direction of the top he additionally explicitly assaults the Tories, who’ve joined Musk in calling for an inquiry into the Oldham rape gangs. He says.
These which are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as extensive as potential, they’re not involved in victims. They’re involved in themselves.
Those that are cheerleading Tommy Robinson will not be involved in justice. They’re supporting a person who went to jail for almost collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case. These are individuals are making an attempt to get some sort of vicarious thrill from road violence that individuals like Tommy Robinson promote.
And people attacking Jess Phillips, who I’m proud to name a colleague and a good friend on defending victims – Jess Phillips has finished 1,000 occasions greater than they’ve even dreamt about in terms of defending victims of sexual abuse all through her whole profession …
We’ve seen this playbook many occasions, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it.
Jess Phillips doesn’t want me or anyone else to talk on her behalf. However when the poison of the far proper results in severe threats to Jess Phillips and others, that in my ebook [means] a line has been crossed.
I benefit from the lower and thrust of politics, the strong debate that we will need to have, however that’s bought to be primarily based on details and fact, not on lies, not on those that are so determined for consideration that they’re ready to debase themselves and their nation.
So this authorities will get on with the job of defending victims, together with little one sexual abuse, obligatory reporting, accelerating the processes.
However what I received’t tolerate is that this dialogue primarily based on lies with out calling it out. What I received’t tolerate is politicians leaping on the bandwagon merely to get consideration when these politicians sat in authorities for 14 lengthy years, tweeting, speaking, however not doing something about it – now so determined for consideration that they’re amplifying what the far proper is saying.
In order that’s what I say about Jess Phillips, Thanks.
Key occasions
Tulip Siddiq refers herself to PM’s ethics adviser over Bangladesh allegations, however she says she’s ‘finished nothing improper’
Tulip Siddiq, the Treasury minister, has referred herself to the impartial adviser on ministerial requirements over reviews that she was given a London flat by an individual linked to her aunt, the previous Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Requested concerning the story at his Q&A, Keir Starmer stated:
Tulip Siddiq has acted fully correctly by referring herself to the impartial adviser, as she’s now finished, and that’s why we introduced into being the brand new code.
It’s to permit ministers to ask the adviser to determine the details, and, sure, I’ve bought confidence in her, and that’s the method that may now be taking place.
Siddiq stated she had “finished nothing improper” in her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, the impartial adviser on ministerial requirements (aka the PM’s “ethics adviser”. She stated:
In latest weeks I’ve been the topic of media reporting, a lot of it inaccurate, about my monetary affairs and my household’s hyperlinks to the previous authorities of Bangladesh.
I’m clear that I’ve finished nothing improper.
Nevertheless, for the avoidance of doubt, I would really like you to independently set up the details about these issues.
I’ll clearly guarantee you’ve all the knowledge it’s essential do that.
In addition to being requested to elucidate the flat, Siddiq has additionally confronted claims, which she has denied, that she is implicated in a corruption scandal being investigated in Bangladesh.
As PA Media reviews, Siddiq had been attributable to be part of a Treasury delegation heading to China this week, however will now keep within the UK. A supply stated: “Tulip desires to be the UK so she is accessible to help the impartial adviser on ministerial requirements.”
Starmer says there is no such thing as a want for additional little one abuse inquiries as a result of now ‘it is time for motion’
GB Information is extra sympathetic to rightwing causes than some other broadcaster and it has been operating a variety of tales about requires an inquiry into the Oldham rape gang circumstances. Christopher Hope, its political editor, prompt the grooming gangs subject was not totally coated within the ultimate report from the impartial inquiry into little one sexual abuse. He requested Starmer if he could possibly be sure this was not nonetheless taking place right now, and he requested if he was apprehensive {that a} new inquiry would possibly reveal his failings as DPP. ‘That’s why Elon Musk says, have been you complicit within the rape of Britain”. Hope claimed that simply going after the far proper was not an sufficient response.
In response, Starmer stated that Hope had coated what he did as DPP when he was a journalist on the Telegraph. He went on:
You checked out my document for 5 years as I used to be doing the job. You bought entry to the entire supplies … I’ve set out what I did. I truly modified the system, as a result of I might see a number of the issues that have been going improper.
Starmer stated the victims suffered “sickening abuse” and weren’t listened to. That’s the reason he modified the best way the CPS handled these circumstances. And it was partly why he went into politics, he stated.
On the query of this name for an ever rising variety of evaluations, there have been a variety of evaluations, together with localised evaluations, together with into Oldham – for instance, the mayor of Manchester did his evaluation. And the Jay report was supposed to have a look at the several types of exploitation that went on. It was a complete evaluation.
What Professor Jay stated was actually vital there [see 9.44am], as a result of I utterly agree. This doesn’t want extra session, it doesn’t want extra analysis, it simply wants motion. There have been many, many evaluations … frankly, it’s time for motion.
Starmer accuses Tories of being ‘informal about trustworthy, decency, fact and rule of legislation’ in rape gang claims
The following query got here kind Robert Peston from ITV Information. He stated Elon Musk had stated Starmer ought to be in jail. That was libellous. Would Starmer sue?
Starmer didn’t handle the libel query (he received’t sue, as a result of that will be insanity), however he once more defended his document. He stated:
There’s nothing secret about being director of public prosections. Each single case I prosecuted went to court docket, was checked out by a decide. I’ve an impartial inspectorate, entry to each single file of each case, any time she or he wished. And I used to be overseen by the legal professional basic, which for 3 of the 5 years was a Tory legal professional basic.
So … slightly than me making an attempt to say any extra about what I did once I was in workplace, you’ll be able to entry this materials. the place it’s, you recognize what details are …
As soon as we lose the anchor that fact issues, within the strong debate that we will need to have, then we’re on a really slippery slope.
And when politicians, and I imply politicians who sat in authorities for a few years, are informal about honesty, decency, fact and the rule of legislation, calling for inquiries as a result of they wish to bounce on a bandwagon of the far proper, that impacts politics as a result of a strong debate can solely be primarily based on the true details.
And that’s why that is truly an vital level about our politics, not about what anyone might or might not say on Twitter. That truly isn’t the principle subject.
The principle subject is, what are politicians right here doing to face up for the issues that matter to our democracy?
That’s why I wish to name this out, as a result of I feel it actually issues, and it issues not simply to me, not simply to the Labour social gathering. It should matter, and it used to matter to all political events, and it’s an indication of the place the Tory social gathering have gotten to that we’re even having this debate.
Starmer hits again at Musk and Tories over rape gangs declare, attacking these ‘spreading lies’ and ‘amplifying far proper’
Beth Rigby, the Sky Information political editor, additionally asks about Elon Musk, and about his assaults on Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister.
Starmer says that he thinks most individuals are extra within the NHS “than what’s taking place on Twitter”.
However he says he does wish to handle intimately this subject.
Let me begin with this, little one sexual exploitation is totally sickening, totally sickening.
And for a lot of, a few years, too many victims have been utterly let down, let down by perverse concepts about group relations or by the concept that establishments should be protected above all else. They usually’ve not been listened to, and so they’ve not been heard.
And once I was chief prosecutor for 5 years, I tackled that head on, as a result of I might see what was taking place, and that’s why I reopened circumstances which were closed and supposedly completed. I introduced the primary main prosecution of an Asian grooming gang within the explicit case – it was in Rochdale, but it surely was the primary of its form …
We modified, or I modified, the entire prosecution strategy, as a result of I wished to problem, and did problem the myths and stereotypes that have been stopping these victims being heard.
So we modified your complete strategy, not with out criticism on the time, I would add.
However once I left workplace, we had the best variety of little one sexual abuse circumstances being prosecuted on document.
Now that document shouldn’t be secret as a public servant, it’s all it’s there for all of you or everyone to see.
I additionally known as for obligatory reporting of kid sexual abuse. I’ve known as for that decade in the past. The Tories did nothing about that, for these 10 lengthy years, together with when the Jay report got here out.
Having defended his document as DPP, Starmer goes on to assault those that have criticised him and Jess Phillips. He doesn’t title Elon Musk, however he’s clearly referring to him. In direction of the top he additionally explicitly assaults the Tories, who’ve joined Musk in calling for an inquiry into the Oldham rape gangs. He says.
These which are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as extensive as potential, they’re not involved in victims. They’re involved in themselves.
Those that are cheerleading Tommy Robinson will not be involved in justice. They’re supporting a person who went to jail for almost collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case. These are individuals are making an attempt to get some sort of vicarious thrill from road violence that individuals like Tommy Robinson promote.
And people attacking Jess Phillips, who I’m proud to name a colleague and a good friend on defending victims – Jess Phillips has finished 1,000 occasions greater than they’ve even dreamt about in terms of defending victims of sexual abuse all through her whole profession …
We’ve seen this playbook many occasions, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it.
Jess Phillips doesn’t want me or anyone else to talk on her behalf. However when the poison of the far proper results in severe threats to Jess Phillips and others, that in my ebook [means] a line has been crossed.
I benefit from the lower and thrust of politics, the strong debate that we will need to have, however that’s bought to be primarily based on details and fact, not on lies, not on those that are so determined for consideration that they’re ready to debase themselves and their nation.
So this authorities will get on with the job of defending victims, together with little one sexual abuse, obligatory reporting, accelerating the processes.
However what I received’t tolerate is that this dialogue primarily based on lies with out calling it out. What I received’t tolerate is politicians leaping on the bandwagon merely to get consideration when these politicians sat in authorities for 14 lengthy years, tweeting, speaking, however not doing something about it – now so determined for consideration that they’re amplifying what the far proper is saying.
In order that’s what I say about Jess Phillips, Thanks.
Starmer declines to reply to Musk’s suggestion ‘tyrannical’ UK authorities ought to be overthrown
Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: [From Hugh Pym, the BBC’s health editor] By specializing in chopping ready lists, are you downgrading different well being targets. And can A&E lose out?
Starmer says simply because the NHS is prioritising ready lists, that doesn’t imply different areas are being uncared for. “We will stroll and chew gum,” he says.
Q: What do you consider Elon Musk calling for the tyrannical UK goverment to be overthrown? [See 9.54am.]
Starmer replies merely:
In relation to that, I don’t actually have any touch upon the actual remark that was made this morning by Musk.
Starmer is now summarising a number of the measures within the elective reform plan.
Right here is the abstract from the information launch.
Additional measures embody:
Utilizing the NHS app to present sufferers higher alternative and management over their remedy. This consists of ensuring sufferers can get higher entry to info by way of the app, equivalent to the main points of their appointments, outcomes and ready occasions, and use it to ebook appointments within the location of their alternative, with details about ready occasions and affected person satisfaction.
Stopping pointless referrals. GPs shall be funded to work with hospital medical doctors to get specialist recommendation earlier than making referrals, in order that extra sufferers get the care they want with out being referred onto the ready checklist.
Giving sufferers alternative over non important observe up appointments as a part of a drive to unlock round 1 million appointments a 12 months for individuals who want them.
Making extra appointments accessible in the neighborhood as an alternative of hospitals. Extra remedy for 5 specialties with explicit strain on ready lists may even be made accessible outdoors of hospital by means of focused reforms, together with Ear Nostril and Throat companies, the place round 30% of referrals at present made to secondary care could possibly be offered in the neighborhood.
Making comfort for sufferers a precedence by means of the roll out of revolutionary ‘collective care’ approaches, for instance, one cease clinics the place sufferers might be assessed, recognized or reviewed on the identical day; the place acceptable, providing group appointments the place sufferers with long run circumstances might profit from being supported collectively; opening ‘tremendous clinics’ which carry collectively a wider vary of clinicians to supervise affected person care beneath the oversight of a advisor, rising the variety of sufferers seen in a day.
Driving up affected person expertise by means of a set of nationwide requirements for elective care. We are going to publish minimal requirements that sufferers ought to anticipate to expertise in elective care, together with giving sufferers a shortlist of suppliers to select from and readability on how lengthy they’re prone to wait. In flip these requirements will make it simpler to establish the place efficiency is falling brief and enhance it.
Starmer says he desires to see NHS companies organised round affected person management.
He says the latest pilots for Martha’s rule are exhibiting how this will make a distinction.
It’s a few shift within the steadiness of energy away from passive deference to medical doctors and in direction of sufferers with the ability to get that second opinion, play a higher position in deciding their care and their remedy.
The early outcomes of Martha’s rule are in, lives of a number of the sickest sufferers in our care remodeled, prolonged and saved and so it’s a rule that’s now being recognised as doubtlessly groundbreaking in its innovation.
Starmer says there was a document £25bn funding within the NHS within the funds.
And it will fund “40,000 further appointments each single week”, he says.
However the cash should be tied to reform, he says.
Let me be crystal clear, that cash shall be used, not because it has been previously as simply papering over the cracks. That’s the definition of the sticking plaster politics that we have been elected to alter.
That is the 12 months we roll up our sleeves and reform the NHS.
Starmer reminds the viewers that his spouse and sister work for the NHS, as his mom did. And he says, if it had not been for the care his mom bought from the NHS for her Nonetheless’s illness, “I wouldn’t be standing right here in entrance of you right now”.
He says each household within the nation has a narrative like this to inform concerning the NHS.
Starmer says there’s “no establishment extra vital for the safety of our nation than the Nationwide Well being Service”.
However he says the general public will not be pleased with it due to the state it has been left in.
So 2025 is about rebuilding Britain, and rebuilding our NHS is the cornerstone of that, and that’s why I wished to return right here to make this speech this morning.
We are going to, in fact, defend the rules all of us cherish, that you simply work to every single day – care free on the level of use, remedy based on want.
However, to catapult the service into the long run, we’d like an NHS that’s reformed from high to backside.
Starmer offers speech on how NHS will lower ready lists in England
Keir Starmer is delivering his speech concerning the elective reform plan now.
Right here is the Downing Road information launch despatched out in a single day previewing what he’s saying.
One drawback for Keir Starmer is that, whereas he can ignore Elon Musk, he can’t ignore Donald Trump, and it isn’t clear what Trump himself thinks of Musk’s social media vitriol about Starmer, the Labour authorities and the UK. There at the least 5 potentialities.
1) ‘Nice stuff, that’s what I feel too.”
2) ‘Elon’s going excessive, but when the socialist Labour authorities is frightened I agree, which may not be a foul factor.’
3) ‘Elon’s going too far, and he has forgotten who is admittedly the boss.’
4) ‘Elon’s going too far, and it isn’t useful as a result of it would undermine relations with an ally.’
5) ‘What tweets? Who cares?’
The reply might be a mix of two), 3) and 4), with occasional moments of 1) and 5), however I’m afraid I don’t truly know. If I discover anybody who does, I’ll publish what they are saying right here.
Elon Musk is, if something, escalating his social media assaults on Labour. In the previous couple of hours, in his feed on X, he has been posting extra feedback concerning the little one abuse scandal within the UK, including Gordon Brown to his checklist of villains, and operating a ballot on whether or not “America ought to liberate the individuals of Britain from their tyrannical authorities”. Greater than 270,000 individuals have responded, and at present 68% are saying sure.
How ought to a PM reply to this form of lunacy. In his latest ebook, On Management, the previous Labour prime minister Tony Blair gives an affordable reply. He says:
The general public reads it, creates it, but in addition has an innate sense that the outline I’ve simply given of it [that a lot of what is on social media is hateful and false] is basically true. Due to this fact, they buffet politicians with it, and on the similar time need politicians to be robust sufficient to resist it and deal with it with the respect it deserves – which is commonly not a lot.
By no means underestimate the diploma to which individuals crave management. Again to Moses once more. The Israelites concurrently hated and craved his management. When you keep in mind, they reached the promised land (although, sure, I do know, he didn’t).
Within the social media world, power as a political Chief, all the time vital, turns into much more so. The worst the individuals can consider you as a Chief is that you’re bullied – or bulliable, if there’s such a phrase. Even a few of those that agree with the criticism being made don’t wish to see you bend. The extra ferocious the onslaught, the extra the reward for staying upright.
Surf the wave of each passing present of Twitter opinion, and you might take pleasure in spasmodic recognition, however you’ll in the end be disregarded as a Chief. Individuals desire a sense not that somebody is detached to what social media is saying – it may be revealing an vital fact – however that you simply as a Chief are ready to be the rock on which the wave breaks, not be swept away by it.
Baby abuse inquiry chair declines to again calls for brand new Oldham probe, and says her suggestions ought to be applied
The Conservative social gathering and Reform UK have each been calling for a public inquiry into the Oldham little one abuse scandal. They’ve been saying this in response to a report final week saying the federal government had rejected a request from Oldham council for a nationwide inquiry. Provided that there have been different inquiries into what occurred in Oldham, in addition to a seven-year, all-encompassing inquiry into little one abuse in Britain, the case for a brand new inquiry may appear weak. However the story has attracted a variety of consideration partially as a result of Elon Musk has been endlessly posting inflammatory tweets about this on X.
Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the nationwide little one abuse inquiry, has not backed requires a brand new inquiry into what occurred at Oldham. Because the BBC reviews, in a press release she has as an alternative known as for the “full implementation” of the suggestions she set out in her personal report. She says:
Our mission is to not name for brand new inquiries however to advocate for the total implementation of the Unbiased Inquiry into Baby Intercourse Abuse’s suggestions. A baby safety authority is vital to this course of.
Labour say it’ll implement the suggestions from the 2022 report “at tempo”. In a press release yesterday the social gathering stated:
The Conservatives spent years dragging their ft and failing to implement the suggestions in Prof Jay’s report, which they praised for its thoroughness. The hypocrisy of Tory politicians is shameful and disrespects the victims of those vile crimes.
Now could be the time for motion and supply. This Labour authorities will act at tempo to implement the Jay suggestions to guard younger ladies from horrific sexual abuse. We are going to defend ladies and ladies the place the Tories failed.
Starmer anticipated to defend document on rape gangs after well being reform speech
Good morning. Prime ministers prefer to deal with what they suppose is vital and there are few points extra vital within the UK than the state of the NHS. On his first correct day again at work after the Christmas holidays, Keir Starmer is giving a speech on this, and Andrew Gregory has previewed it right here.
I’ll be protecting the speech, and response to it, intimately because the day goes on.
However prime ministers even have to speak by way of the media, and for years they’ve needed to take care of the truth that that British papers have their very own agenda, and are largely hostile to Labour governments. Social media is even worse. And that’s the reason Starmer is predicted to seek out his post-speech Q&A dominated by questions on a baby abuse scandal from about 20 years in the past.
A part of the protection has been pushed by false and absurd claims about Starmer and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister. Politicians, and journalists, usually work on the idea that they will ignore loudmouth idiots and that they need to solely take note of figures of authority. However, with Donald Trump about to turn out to be US president once more, what occurs if the determine of authority can be a loudmouth fool – or at the least presents as one? The present Oldham rape gang controversy has been stirred up by tweets from Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and main Trump ally, however it’s an early indication of a number of the issues Trump’s social media outbursts are prone to trigger when he returns to the White Home.
Over latest weeks Downing Road has usually stated little or nothing about Musk many inflammatory feedback about Starmer on X, the social media platform he owns. Different ministers have caught to the identical line, though on the weekend Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, described Musk’s assault on Phillips as “appalling”. (Whether or not this was inspired by No 10, or simply freelance retaliation, was not clear.)
As we speak Starmer himself is predicted to hit again, not a lot by attacking Musk personally, as by defending his personal document coping with little one abuse circumstances when he was director of public prosecutions. In a report within the Instances, Steven Swinford says:
The prime minister is predicted to reply to [Musk’s claim that he was “complict in the rape of Britain”] on Monday as he holds a significant press convention about his plans to chop NHS ready lists. He’s anticipated to say that he gave the “inexperienced mild” to prosecuting paedophile gangs in Rochdale in 2013 and spotlight the actual fact he launched reforms to the best way the Crown Prosecution Service handles little one abuse circumstances. He additionally launched a nationwide community of specialist prosecutors to look into little one abuse and sexual exploitation.
The prime minister can be prone to subject a forthright defence of Phillips and the work she has finished in tackling violence in opposition to ladies and ladies. Each Labour and the Tories have stated that Musk’s feedback about Phillips are inaccurate.
Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, has had an identical briefing. Talking on the As we speak programme this morning, he stated he anticipated Starmer to say that the controversy about how little one abuse circumstances have been dealt with ought to be “grounded in verifiable details”.
We’ll hear Starmer’s personal phrases quickly. Right here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Keir Starmer delivers his speech on the elective reform plan, the proposals to make sure the NHS in England hits its goal of guaranteeing that by 2029 92% of sufferers don’t have to attend greater than 18 weeks for an operation. However he’s additionally taking questions from the media, and is predicted to be requested a few vary of points which were within the information over the vacation interval.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate a backbench movement calling for the federal government to analyze methods of seizing frozen Russian belongings within the UK and utilizing them to fund Ukraine.
4.30pm: MPs maintain a debate in Westminster Corridor on the petition saying there ought to be a contemporary basic election.
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If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You may attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and for those who message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if crucial.
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