'He's been forced into it!' Chris Philp takes aim at Keir Starmer after 'humiliating' U-turn on grooming gangs inquiry

Asked whether Labour is now taking more action than the Tories did, Philp told GB News: "I don't think that's true. I mean, of course, it was the Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May who set up the original Rotherham inquiry.

"Theresa May also set up the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which touched on this, amongst other things. It was Sajid Javid, a Conservative Home Secretary who started collecting ethnicity data. It was Rishi Sunak, a Conservative Prime Minister, who set up the grooming gangs task force, which in its first year led to 550 arrests. So that's what the last Government did."

Delivering his verdict on Labour's decision to hold a national inquiry, Philp accused Starmer of "not believing" in an inquiry and instead being "forced" into holding one due to mounting pressure.

Philp fumed: "It is a humiliating U-turn for the Government. And of course, the Government isn't doing this because they want to or because they believe in it, they're doing it because they've been forced to.

The Prime Minister confirmed the UK will hold a national grooming gangs probe while travelling to the G7 Summit in Canada

Starmer told reporters that he "read every single word" of Baroness Casey's report, and is "going to accept her recommendation" for a national inquiry.

He added: "That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit."

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"They've been forced partly by the imminent publication of the Casey report, but they've also been forced by the vote that we had scheduled on Wednesday of this week to set up a proper independent statutory inquiry."

Highlighting Starmer's previous remarks about those calling for a national inquiry, branding campaigners "far-right", Philp told GB News: "They've decided in a panic to all of a sudden do this U-turn. Keir Starmer doesn't believe in this.

"We know what he really believes in, because back in January when this first came out, he smeared campaigners and people like me, he called us far-right for calling for an inquiry. That was a disgraceful smear, and now just six months later he's doing exactly what we asked for."

Philp also outlined specific requirements for any new inquiry, stating: "This does need to be a quick inquiry. Some public inquiries drag on for five or ten years, we can't have that happening here. This needs to be a one or two year process, a very focused process.

"I think the work on prosecutions for misconduct in public office should happen alongside the inquiry, not afterwards. We know from Charlie Peters’ work, there are about 50 towns affected. All of those need to be covered."

Philp cited ongoing cover-ups, noting that "Bradford City Council is even to this day, refusing to have an inquiry."

He concluded: "The inquiry needs to have the legal power to compel the production of evidence and compel participation, because as recently as last year, we saw public bodies still withholding evidence, for example, from the Greater Manchester local inquiry.

"The chairs of that resigned last year because they didn't have those legal powers. Bradford City Council is even to this day, refusing to have an inquiry. Bradford City Council is still trying to cover this up, so it's got to have the powers to get underneath that and compel the production of evidence.

"It's got to be quick. We can't have this dragging on for years and years and nor can it delay prosecutions either."