The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, declared that individuals who groom children will face harsher punishments as part of a campaign against one of the most abhorrent crimes. This statement was made during an address to the House of Commons.
Cooper specified that the government plans to introduce new legislation that categorizes grooming as an ‘aggravating factor’ in sentencing guidelines for offenders.
‘The punishment must fit the terrible crime,’ she told MPs, as she outlined a series of measures to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The announcement by Ms. Cooper came as she spoke to Members of Parliament amidst heightened controversy surrounding the issue. The matter gained renewed attention following demands from the Labour party to launch a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
The Home Office has rejected Oldham Council’s request in favour of a locally-led investigation, with the Government’s decision criticised by the Tories and Reform UK.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has also hit out a senior Labour figures over grooming gangs in a series of posts on his social media site.
The controversial businessman has branded safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who denied the council’s requests, a ‘rape genocide apologist’.
And he has taken aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s record as head of the Crown Prosecution Service, as he continued his bitter feud with the Prime Minister.
Ms Cooper said the ‘most important inquiries and investigations’ should be those carried out by the police to ‘track those perpetrators down’.
She also vowed to implement the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and penned a 2022 report.
Ex-PM Rishi Sunak previously proposed tougher laws to tackle grooming gangs, but the Tories’ Criminal Justice Bill was not passed by the Commons before July’s general election.
Ms Cooper said there was a need for ‘new impetus and action’ over child sexual exploitation as she outlined three key measures.
She told MPs that Labour would ‘make it mandatory to report abuse’, which would make it ‘an offence with professional and criminal sanctions to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse’.
‘The protection of institutions must never be put before the protection of children,’ the Home Secretary said.
‘This measure is something I first called for in response to the reports and failings in Rotherham 10 years ago.
‘It’s something that the PM first called for 12 years ago based on his experience as director of public prosecutions, and the case was clear then, but we have lost a decade, and we need to get on with it now.’
Ms Cooper also told the Commons that Labour will ‘legislate to make grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences, because the punishment must fit the terrible crime’.
‘Third, we will overhaul the information and evidence that is gathered on child sexual abuse and exploitation and embedded in a clear new performance framework for policing so these crimes are taken far more seriously,’ she added.
Earlier today, Sir Keir mounted a robust defence of his record on child sexual exploitation and insisted he had tackled the issue ‘head on’ in his former role as director of public prosecutions.
The PM accused opposition politicians of ‘amplifying what the far-Right is saying’ after falling to act ‘for 14 long years’.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp tonight hit back at Sir Keir’s comments as he repeated Tory calls for a national inquiry.
He was met with shouts of ‘shame’ from the Labour benches as he told the Commons: ‘It is not far-right to stand up for victims of mass rape.’
‘Smearing people who raised those issues is exactly how this ended up getting covered up in the first place,’ he added.
In her response to Mr Philp, Ms Cooper said the Tories failed to take ‘enough action’ to tackle the issue of grooming gangs during their long spell in power.
She said: ‘The truth is there just has not been enough action to tackle these vile crimes.
‘There hasn’t been enough change to policies, to the way in which services operate at local level, and that is a deep failing that those changes have not taken place.’
