Labour MP Paul Waugh has defended voting down Kemi Badenoch's attempt to force a national grooming gangs inquiry ahead of Yvette Cooper's announcement later today.
The ex-journalist, who joined a gaggle of Labour MPs in calling for a national grooming gangs probe back in January, warned "misinformation" has been spreading about votes held in the House of Commons earlier this year.
Badenoch's Tories attempted to attach a so-called "wrecking" amendment to Labour's Children & Wellbeing Bill to force a national probe.
A total of 350 Labour MPs voted against the amendment, alongside 10 independent MPs and two Green MPs.
Meanwhile, 101 Tories and five Reform MPs formed an 111-strong coalition calling for a national inquiry.
Despite advocating for a national inquiry, Waugh joined Labour MPs in voting down the proposed probe.
He was joined by other advocates of a national inquiry, including Rotherham MP Sarah Champion.
Setting the record straight ahead of Cooper’s announcement, Waugh said: "Along with other Labour MPs, I voted in January against a Tory Parliamentary motion that would have killed off a new law to safeguard children.
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Labour MP Paul Waugh
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"The motion would have rejected the entire Children and Wellbeing Bill - which itself delivers a vital recommendation by the Jay inquiry into child sex abuse, to give children outside school a named identifier.
"If the opposition had been serious they could have tried to amend the bill at a later stage not its Second Reading.
"That would have been a very different matter. If you really care about the victims of abuse, you don’t play parliamentary games with it.
“And you don’t block one of the main recommendations of the Jay report that the previous Government failed to deliver on."
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Following the vote on January 8, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed the Prime Minister’s “supermajority” blocked efforts to launch an inquiry.
Philp said: “Labour MPs have put their Party ahead of getting to the truth and turned a blind eye to justice for the victims.
“Labour MPs will have to explain to the British people why they are against learning the truth behind the torture and rape of countless vulnerable girls.
“We will not let them forget this act of cowardice.”
Following the vote on January 8, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed the Prime Minister’s 'supermajority' blocked efforts to launch an inquiry
|GB News
However, Starmer had already hit out at Badenoch over “lies and misinformation and slinging of mud” which he said would not help victims of child sexual abuse.
The Prime Minister also urged the Tory leader to drop her call, claiming it would have derailed a key piece of child protection legislation.
Despite Waugh's defence, Starmer today doubled-down on his decision to label initial calls for a national inquiry as "jumping on a far-right bandwagon"
Just 48 hours after Starmer announced his national inquiry U-turn, a No10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister’s comments about bandwagons were specifically about ministers from the previous Government who sat in office for years and did nothing to tackle this scandal.
"As the Prime Minister has said, we will not make the same mistake.
"The point the PM has made is that those spreading lies and misinformation were not doing so in the interest of victims.
"And those cheerleading for Tommy Robinson, who was almost who was jailed for almost collapsing a grooming case, are not interested in justice."