Labour has blocked an inquiry into Sir Keir Starmer’s conduct as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service while investigating the Oldham child grooming scandal.
Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, refused to launch a public inquiry into historical sexual abuse by gangs in Oldham, saying it was for the council to decide whether one was necessary.
The scandal was one of several across the country in which dozens of girls were abused by British Pakistani gangs.
Police forces and prosecutors often did not take action for fear of being called racist or Islamophobic, a failing Sir Keir addressed in 2012 when he was running the CPS as the director of public prosecutions.
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Elon Musk, the US tech billionaire and ally of Donald Trump, and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, led criticism of the decision to block an inquiry.
Mr Musk, who will have a major role in Mr Trump’s incoming administration, has emerged as a vocal critic of Sir Keir and his Government in recent months.
Writing on his social media platform X, Mr Musk claimed Ms Phillips “deserves to be in prison” over the “disgraceful” decision, which he suggested had been taken to protect the Prime Minister.
He said: “Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008–2013.
“Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer [sic]. The real reason she’s refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer (head of the CPS at the time).”
Mrs Badenoch said: “The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years, but no one in authority has joined the dots – 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.”
However, she was rebuked by Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who said: “Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, who has written to Ms Phillips urging her to rethink her decision, said any inquiry should look into Sir Keir’s involvement as DPP.
He told The World at One on BBC Radio 4: “I can’t speculate about Keir Starmer’s personal motivations, but I think looking into the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service, including during the time when Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions, would be one of the things that this inquiry should certainly be looking at…
“That’s why we need an investigation, a proper statutory inquiry to get to the bottom of that kind of question.”
Liz Truss, the former prime minister, also criticised Ms Phillips’ decision, writing on X:
This is @jessphillips, the same Home Office Minister who excused masked Islamist thugs.
Her title “Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls” is a perversion of the English language.
It’s clear whose side she is on. https://t.co/Heg2O8rSW7
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) January 1, 2025
A 2022 report found children in Oldham were failed by agencies that were meant to protect them amid alleged grooming by “predominantly Pakistani offenders” in council homes and shisha bars, and by taxi drivers.
Sir Keir admitted that the CPS had let vulnerable girls down under his watch, after a case was dropped against a rape suspect in 2009 despite all evidence pointing to their guilt.
Speaking in 2012, near the end of his five-year tenure as DPP, he admitted that the ethnicity of suspects had been an issue in securing prosecutions of grooming gangs.
He said: “In a number of cases presented to us, particularly in cases involving groups, there’s clearly an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed.
“As prosecutors we shouldn’t shy away from that. But if we’re honest, it’s the approach to the victims, the credibility issue, that caused these cases not to be prosecuted in the past. There was a lack of understanding.”
On Thursday, a former MP for Rochdale claimed that an ex-chairman of Labour’s parliamentary party had warned him that drawing attention to the ethnicity of grooming gangs could harm the party’s electoral chances.
Simon Danczuk, who represented the town from 2010 to 2017, said he was “threatened” by Tony Lloyd, who at the time was campaigning to be the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner.
Apology for failings
Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences in Rochdale, including rape, in 2012. Eight were of British Pakistani origin and one was an Afghan asylum seeker.
Since then, a further 33 men have been convicted, and Greater Manchester police has apologised for failing to investigate earlier allegations more thoroughly.
Mr Danczuk told The Telegraph he had been warned by two Labour MPs – Mr Lloyd and Jim Dobbin, the MP for the neighbouring seat of Heywood and Middleton – not to link the scandal to the perpetrators’ ethnicity.
Social media commentators have suggested Ms Phillips had taken the decision not to back a full inquiry into Oldham because her constituency of Birmingham Yardley has a high proportion of Muslim residents. At last year’s general election, her majority shrank from 13,141 to just 693.
Mr Musk also responded to a claim on X that grooming was covered up by authorities that did not want to “let themselves get called Islamophobic”, calling the practice “contemptible”.
Replying to another post that said “some of the authorities in the UK allegedly ignored the grooming gangs for fear of being called ‘racist’”, the Tesla entrepreneur wrote: “YES”.
It comes after Oldham council’s Labour group last year agreed to support an independent inquiry, writing twice to Ms Phillips urging the Home Office to support this work.
It agreed to send the request as part of an agreement with independent councillors to allow it to remain in control of the council, despite losing its majority last May.
Lewis Quigg, a Conservative councillor in Oldham, said: “At the moment the council are now having to look and try to establish with the survivors how that inquiry will look. The power to compel at a public inquiry would be much more important.
“It would give them the confidence that something is being done to compel witnesses to come forward. At the end of the day we don’t know how many people have been affected by this, and that is the key issue that is at stake.
“For a government to not take its own people and crimes against its own people seriously and not to help uncover those potential crimes that are yet to be discovered it just isn’t good enough.”
Ms Phillips replied to the councillors’ letter: “It is for Oldham council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene… I welcome the council’s resolution to do so, as set out in your letter, and to continue its important work with victims and survivors.”
Labour defended its decision on Thursday, with a spokesman saying: “Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes, and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims.
“We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse, which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This Government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated.
“Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future. We will welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham council, which puts victims’ voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham.”
Telford and Rotherham councils commissioned and funded their own inquiries into grooming gangs in their areas.
