CV NEWS FEED // The British Parliament this week blocked a bill requiring a national inquiry into the rape-gang scandal plaguing the nation for the past 30 years in a 364–111 vote.
In a Jan. 8 article, the BBC reported that Kemi Badenoch — the Conservative Party leader whose party proposed the bill — warned that citizens could accuse the government of a cover-up if Parliament refused to pass the measure.
Most members of the Labour Party, which has the majority control of Parliament, opposed the measure.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the vote “morally wrong.” He explained why the Conservative Party proposed the measure even though it was unlikely to pass.
“When you’re in opposition you need to use every parliamentary device available to try and bring issues to the fore,” he said. “We must have this inquiry and we… will do everything we can to keep the victims at the front of this debate and to try and get the government to do the right thing. It’s not too late – [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer could still announce an inquiry and I really hope we can pressure him, persuade him to change his mind and do the right thing for victims.”
Starmer argued that there had already been local inquiries into the abuses and that a national inquiry would delay action against the perpetrators. He added that “reasonable people could agree or disagree” about whether another inquiry is necessary. He also stated that victims have varying opinions on whether a national inquiry is necessary.
Mayor Andy Burnham of Greater Manchester, who is a member of the Labour Party, supported the measure. The Independent reports that he stated, “I will add my voice into this and say I do think there is the case for a limited national inquiry.”
The inquiry proposal comes after Elon Musk started posting on X about the rape crisis in England, as CatholicVote previously reported.
According to reports, thousands of underage British girls since the early 2000s were violently assaulted by gangs of men and were subjected to rape, torture, and sometimes murder. Many have argued that these crimes went largely ignored by social workers, policemen, and media because the perpetrators were mostly Muslim Pakistani men.
