Freedom from Abuse campaigner Marilyn Hawes has furiously hit out at Labour over its grooming gang inquiry announcement, branding them a ‘whitewash’.
Speaking on GB News, Hawes was discussing the Government’s decision to launch five new locally led inquiries, assisted by central Government as part of a £10 million pilot scheme.
She said the fund is ‘peanuts’ and accused the party of not wanting all the facts to be uncovered as she unloaded a furious rant on the People’s Channel.
“The local councils didn’t do anything to help these people, so how can we trust them now?
Marilyn Hawes hit out at Labour’s grooming gangs announcement
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“I don’t think the Labour Party wants to uncover anything because so many of the councils were Labour.
“I don’t think they want to lose the Islamic vote. The money is absolutely peanuts. This crime is across the UK. It’s not just popular, famous towns. It’s in villages and seaside towns.
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Marilyn Hawes joined Tom Harwood and Emily Carver on GB News
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“People just don’t see it for what it is. We need the transparency to come back and just have some faith in this country. We are talking about the rape of children. It can’t get worse, can it?
“I would say the Labour Party are traitors. It’s a shame we can’t put them in the Tower of London.”
It comes after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced five new government-backed local inquiries into grooming gangs, including one in Oldham.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Cooper said local inquiries would be able to “delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers” than a national probe.
If successful, the pilot programme could be expanded to other areas across the country.
Tom Crowther KC, who led the Telford grooming gang inquiry in 2022, has been asked to advise on the investigations.
Police will be encouraged to reopen past investigations, Cooper revealed.
Baroness Louise Casey will oversee a “rapid audit” into the current scale of gang-based exploitation across the country.
The government will set out a timetable before Easter for implementing the 20 recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) final report.
Cooper told MPs: “Far too little action has been taken, and shamefully little progress has been made. That has to change.”
The Home Office has accepted four specific IICSA recommendations, including measures on disclosure and barring.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp criticised the new inquiries as “wholly inadequate”, noting that previous reports “did not go far enough”.