'You're avoiding the point!' Stephen Dixon tears into Labour Minister in brutal grilling over grooming gangs inquiry U-turn

The Prime Minister called for a statutory national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal following an audit by Baroness Casey.

Speaking to reporters while travelling to the G7 Summit in Canada, Starmer said: "I have read every single word of her [Baroness Casey] report, and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit."

Discussing the U-turn on GB News, Stephen pressed Reynolds on why the Prime Minister has decided on an inquiry after accusing Starmer of previously "politicising" the issue.

Stephen asked Reynolds: "Why on earth did he politicise this issue earlier in the year, saying people who wanted a full national inquiry were jumping on a far-right bandwagon, only to now decide that actually they were right in the first place?"

Defending Starmer, the Labour Minister argued: "I remember distinctly that at Prime Minister's Questions in January, the Prime Minister rightly said that there were different views on both sides of this debate. And actually victims and their families had different views too.

"But what we did in January is that we asked every police force to reopen investigations. We now have over 800 reopened cases. We've ordered the National Crime Agency to follow those up, so the Prime Minister and the Government as a whole, our priority all along was to and it continues to be to deliver justice for the victims and their families and get to the bottom of what happened."

After Stephen called out House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell for her "dog whistle politics" jibe from earlier this year, Reynolds was yet again quizzed on how the Government's U-turn can be taken seriously.

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Reynolds told GB News: "We take this issue incredibly seriously. The Prime Minister was director of Public prosecutions, and he acted ten years ago in that position on these issues.

"We have set out now a proper plan, we've listened to Baroness Casey, who at the start of her review didn't think there needed to be a national inquiry but has since and covered gaps."

Reynolds instead blasted the previous Conservative Government for not taking more decisive action on grooming gangs.

Reynolds added: "The last Government frankly did nothing in the time they were in office on the 20 recommendations put out in 2022, so we are forging ahead with urgent action here to deliver justice for the victims."

Criticising Reynolds's response, Stephen hit back: "You haven't as yet answered any of the questions we've put to you. You've avoided the point. Whatever action has been taken before, great, but there was calls for a national inquiry.

"And anyone who looked at the evidence put forward, including the work that our reporter has done, would have said it's a very simple answer to this question. There clearly needs to be a national inquiry. This is a huge problem and you politicise it as a Government. You politicised that and said there was no need for it, and now you've changed your mind that you've got to address that, haven't you?"

Reynolds also said: "The Prime Minister was talking about Conservative ministers who were politicising this issue, who, frankly, had sat in Government offices for years, sat on the recommendations and not taken those forward. He also said, however, that there were strong views and opinions on both sides of this debate as to whether there needed to be a national inquiry.

"The one that Baroness Casey is calling for is to coordinate local inquiries and to fill the gaps. We do not want to wait another seven years before we take action, which is why we have prioritised taking action, reopening cases, ordering the National Crime Agency to follow up those over 800 cases now reopened since January, since the Home Secretary ordered the police to reopen the cases into grooming."

She concluded: "So we are making progress and we want to make progress as quickly as possible, and that is what is important here.

"What's important is the victims, the victims have to be at the centre of this inquiry and the centre of this work, and we need to take urgent action, and we already are making progress."