Father of grooming gangs victim tears into appointment of Baroness Longfield amid inquiry chaos: 'Labour scrutinising Labour!'

Former children’s commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield will chair the inquiry into grooming gangs following months of delays.

Baroness Longfield said she feels "honoured" to be named chair of the grooming gangs inquiry, vowing the inquiry will "follow the evidence and will not shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths wherever we find them".

Delivering his verdict on the appointment, Mr West told the People's Channel: "I'm extremely disappointed. As a campaigner, more importantly, as a father, we've been asking for a judge, preferably a non British judge.

"Then when I discovered that Dame Longfield has been named the chair, who also is, historically, a Labour peer, it's really concerning."

Highlighting Baroness Longfield's position as a Labour Peer, Mr West stressed: "Because we all know this, a lot of the areas where girls are groomed, including my daughter, are Labour run. And what we don't want is Labour scrutinising Labour.

"So it goes back to trust. With everything that's gone on in the last few months, survivors on families don't trust Labour, so we are dubious straight away."

Offering some defence for Baroness Longfield, Mr West acknowledged her past work in tackling county lines in Britain.

He said: "However, that said, I do know that Dame Longfield has done some good work with county lines, but she's not done anything around grooming."

Agreeing with Mr West, Nigel responded: "Yeah, I mean, that's my point, Marlon. And I just wonder whether we're going to hear, over the course of the next few months that when she was Children's Commissioner, that lots and lots of complaints on this came in."

Delivering his verdict on the campaigner's thoughts, Nigel told his GB News panel: "Marlon wasn't fuming or angry, but as he says, many of the areas in which the grooming took place were Labour run areas.

"It just doesn't look quite right with a Labour peer?"

Defending Baroness Longfield, commentator Jo Phillips responded: "Well, she's resigned her Labour whip now. I think the problem is, Nigel, that you're never going to get anybody who is going to please all of the people involved.

"This recommendation of Anne Longfield has come from Louise Casey, who was tasked yet again - because she seems to be the only person who can make anything happen - in fact, I don't know why we don't just have Louise Casey as Prime Minister and be done with it."

She continued: "And so she recommended Anne Longfield, who as we know, has got a very good and commendable background in children's issues, and particularly children's services.

"She's also joined on that panel by Zoe Billingham, who was an inspector of prisons and fire and emergency services. So there's two really good, well qualified women recommended by Louise Casey, who I would personally trust.

"I think we have to wait and see. You're never going to please all the people, the victims will want this, the other people will want that. We've heard this figure three years, let's hope it only lasts for three years. It was only last week we got another Hillsborough result, which told us nothing that we didn't know already."

Nigel then asked Former Tory MP Ranil Jayawardena if he has any confidence in the inquiry, to which he stated: "No, I don't either. And with enquiries like this, you've got to have the confidence of the people who have been wronged.

"And you've got some of those victims saying that this is not an independent inquiry. How can it be independent of the Government when the person sharing it is a former Labour Government member? And the truth is that she's not just been a peer for the last year, she's also, whilst she was children's commissioner, actively campaigned against the Conservative Government at the time.

"She's been partisan for years, and she's been campaigning most recently on things like scrapping the two child benefit cap rather than using her platform in the House of Lords to get justice for those who have been wronged. So I don't think the priorities she's set out or indeed her record is very good. It's certainly not going to give a lot of confidence to those who want justice now."

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