Key events
Child abuse inquiry chair Alexis Jay declines to back calls for new Oldham probe, and says her recommendations should be implemented
The Conservative party and Reform UK have both been calling for a public inquiry into the Oldham child abuse scandal. They have been saying this in response to a report last week saying the government had rejected a request from Oldham council for a national inquiry. Given that there have been other inquiries into what happened in Oldham, as well as a seven-year, all-encompassing inquiry into child abuse in Britain, the case for a new inquiry might seem weak. But the story has attracted a lot of attention in part because Elon Musk has been endlessly posting inflammatory tweets about this on X.
Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the national child abuse inquiry, has not backed calls for a new inquiry into what happened at Oldham. As the BBC reports, in a statement she has instead called for the “full implementation” of the recommendations she set out in her own report. She says:
Our mission is not to call for new inquiries but to advocate for the full implementation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse’s recommendations. A child protection authority is critical to this process.
Labour say it will implement the recommendations from the 2022 report “at pace”. In a statement yesterday the party said:
The Conservatives spent years dragging their feet and failing to implement the recommendations in Prof Jay’s report, which they praised for its thoroughness. The hypocrisy of Tory politicians is shameful and disrespects the victims of these vile crimes.
Now is the time for action and delivery. This Labour government will act at pace to implement the Jay recommendations to protect young girls from horrific sexual abuse. We will protect women and girls where the Tories failed.
Starmer expected to defend record on rape gangs after health reform speech
Good morning. Prime ministers like to focus on what they think is important and there are few issues more important in the UK than the state of the NHS. On his first proper day back at work after the Christmas holidays, Keir Starmer is giving a speech on this, and Andrew Gregory has previewed it here.
I’ll be covering the speech, and reaction to it, in detail as the day goes on.
But prime ministers also have to communicate via the media, and for years they have had to deal with the fact that that British papers have their own agenda, and are largely hostile to Labour governments. Social media is even worse. And that is why Starmer is expected to find his post-speech Q&A dominated by questions about a child abuse scandal from about 20 years ago.
Part of the coverage has been driven by false and absurd claims about Starmer and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister. Politicians, and journalists, normally work on the basis that they can ignore loudmouth idiots and that they should only pay attention to figures of authority. But, with Donald Trump about to become US president again, what happens if the figure of authority is also a loudmouth idiot – or at least presents as one? The current Oldham rape gang controversy has been stirred up by tweets from Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and leading Trump ally, but it is an early indication of some of the problems Trump’s social media outbursts are likely to cause when he returns to the White House.
Over recent weeks Downing Street has generally said little or nothing about Musk many inflammatory comments about Starmer on X, the social media platform he owns. Other ministers have stuck to the same line, although at the weekend Wes Streeting, the health secretary, described Musk’s attack on Phillips as “appalling”. (Whether this was encouraged by No 10, or just freelance retaliation, was not clear.)
Today Starmer himself is expected to hit back, not so much by attacking Musk personally, as by defending his own record dealing with child abuse cases when he was director of public prosecutions. In a report in the Times, Steven Swinford says:
The prime minister is expected to respond to [Musk’s claim that he was “complict in the rape of Britain”] on Monday as he holds a major press conference about his plans to cut NHS waiting lists. He is expected to say that he gave the “green light” to prosecuting paedophile gangs in Rochdale in 2013 and highlight the fact he introduced reforms to the way the Crown Prosecution Service handles child abuse cases. He also introduced a national network of specialist prosecutors to look into child abuse and sexual exploitation.
The prime minister is also likely to issue a forthright defence of Phillips and the work she has done in tackling violence against women and girls. Both Labour and the Tories have said that Musk’s comments about Phillips are inaccurate.
Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, has had a similar briefing. Speaking on the Today programme this morning, he said he expected Starmer to say that the debate about how child abuse cases were handled should be “grounded in verifiable facts”.
We’ll hear Starmer’s own words soon. Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Keir Starmer delivers his speech on the elective reform plan, the proposals to ensure the NHS in England hits its target of ensuring that by 2029 92% of patients don’t have to wait more than 18 weeks for an operation. But he is also taking questions from the media, and is expected to be asked about a range of issues that have been in the news over the holiday period.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate a backbench motion calling for the government to investigate ways of seizing frozen Russian assets in the UK and using them to fund Ukraine.
4.30pm: MPs hold a debate in Westminster Hall on the petition saying there should be a fresh general election.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.