Tory and Reform MPs accused of ‘weaponising trauma’ of grooming victims, as Farage calls for inquiry to focus on Pakistani men – as it happened

• Keir Starmer has accused Kemi Badenoch of “bandwagon jumping” in calling for a new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs. The two leaders clashed before MPs started the second reading debate for the children’s wellbeing and schools bill. At 7pm Tory MPs will vote for a Conservative amendment that would block the bill and urge the government to hold an inquiry into sexual abuse by gangs. Starmer has not ruled out an inquiry (see 1.59am), but Labour MPs have been ordered to vote down the amendment and it is certain to be defeated. Given that the bill includes measures to protect children from abuse, Starmer said it was “shocking” that the Conservatives wanted to vote it down. During the debate the Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe suggested all Pakistani visas should be refused, and aid to the country suspended, until Pakistan agreed to take back any of its nationals who have been involved in child sex crimes – and their relatives. Labour’s Sarah Champion said she was “disgusted” by his speech. (See 5.03pm.)

• Siobhain McDonagh, a Labour MP usually seen as a loyalist, has criticised the bill because of its impact on academies. Under the bill, they will lose some of the freedoms they enjoy and be required to teach the national curriculum. Speaking in the debate, McDonagh said when she was first elected in 1997 two of the four secondary schools in her Mitcham and Morden constituency were in the lowest-performing 5% of schools in London and the capital was the “worst region in the country” when she was first elected in 1997. There are now three academies in her constituency, all rated oustanding, she said. She went on:

According to Ofsted’s latest inspection report, one of the keys to the success of Harris Academy Merton is its aspirational curriculum – their version of our national curriculum that is flexible and tailored to pupils’ individual needs.

Ofsted stated that their teachers were able to carefully consider what pupils needed to learn and the right time for pupils to revisit this knowledge.

This is a proven recipe for success, not just at Harris Academy Merton but in academies across England.

I struggle to see how removing this right to a carefully tailored education will benefit the students that need the additional support that this provides.

Forcing schools like Harris Academy to teach the national curriculum risks undermining one of the keys to their success.

• Members of the Welsh parliament could receive a 6% pay rise this year, PA Media reports. PA says the rise would mean a backbench Senedd member would earn £76,380 a year from April, up from £72,057 in 2024. Proposals for a 6% increase in MSs’ pay have been put forward by the Independent Remuneration Board, as part of its annual review. The first minister, Eluned Morgan, would see her additional salary rise to £90,701, taking her total pay to £167,081, while senior government ministers would get £119,343. The increase is now subject to a public consultation.

The Liberal Democrats have been ordered to pay £14,000 in damages to a former parliamentary candidate who feels she was driven out of the party and barred from standing as an MP in a row over her gender-critical views, PA Media reports. PA says:

Natalie Bird, 45, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, had complained of being unfairly targeted for her beliefs after she wore a top bearing the slogan “Woman: Adult Human Female” to a party meeting.

Bird recalled “being treated like a wicked witch and felt targeted” in a campaign of discrimination and feeling that “the complaints system was weaponised against her”, the central London county court heard today.

The single mother and former prospective parliamentary candidate for Wakefield sued for discrimination, and representatives of the Lib Dem membership had previously conceded the claim.

Bird had asked for an award of £90,000 for injury to feelings for breach of her membership contract and rights under the Equality Act.

She had gone online and been critical of the party’s policies and “there is no evidence that Bird’s views ever crossed the line and became transphobic or abusive”, judge Jane Evans-Gordon said.

Bird was also “upset” by people who called her transphobic when her claims of their alleged abuse went “unaddressed”.

The court heard: “Ms Bird holds the belief that sex and gender are separate. Her views are known as gender critical. She alleges that as a result she has suffered discrimination by the Liberal Democrats which has caused her great hurt to her feelings.”

The judge said the level of compensation reflects the fact the discrimination was not “a one-off or an isolated incident and it is likely to have had a significant impact on Ms Bird”.

She noted that Bird is not prevented from returning to work, the sum makes allowances for the unfair process involved in her removal as a prospective parliamentary candidate for Wakefield but not for her lack of progress in her political career or ability to network.

The judge added: “Political parties are entitled to choose candidates who support party policies and remove those who disagree with the policies. They cannot be expected to choose those who publicly disagree and undermine party policy.”

Bird had worn the T-shirt bearing the words “Woman: Adult Human Female” in the days after she was nominated as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Wakefield in December 2018.

Soon after she received a letter suspending her membership and notifying her that there would be a formal disciplinary hearing against her for breaching the party’s code of conduct.

The court heard that Bird’s case covers a range of issues including how the complaints against her were dealt with, her prospects for appeal, her removal as a prospective parliamentary candidate and her exclusion from the 2020 party conference as a result of her suspension.

After the ruling, a Lib Dem spokesperson said: “This case relates to events that took place in 2019 under a different complaints system that has since been changed.”

The Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has suggested that all Pakistani visas should be refused, and aid to the country suspended, until Pakistan agreed to take back any of its nationals who have been involved in child sex crimes – and their relatives.

He also suggested that British Pakistanis with dual nationality should lose their British citizenship if convicted of rape.

Lowe was speaking in the debate in the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, in a contribution that led to one Labour MPs saying she was “disgusted” by his comments.

Lowe framed his speech largely as a series of questions. He started:

Will the government commit to urgently deporting all guilty foreign nationals involved, including family members who were aware of the crimes and therefore complicit? Wives, sisters, mothers, cousins – if they knew and said nothing these individuals are just as guilty as the rapist themselves.

Will the government commit to stripping citizenship from dual nationals implicated and deport them as well? Race or religion must protect nobody.

Will the government commit to pausing all Pakistani visas and foreign aid into the country until the Pakistani government agrees to accept any of its public citizens that have perpetrated these crimes on British soil and also imprison these rapists and their accomplices?

Will the government undertake a full investigation into who had knowledge of these crimes yet failed to act? Establish a specified task to root out this wicked, evil – don’t just fire these violence, prosecute them.

How many girls estimated to have been raped? Is there a tally for the overall number of rapes? Horrifyingly, it well be in the millions, We just don’t know.

Lowe, who recently received an endorsement from Elon Musk on the same day Musk said Nigel Farage should be replaced as Reform UK leader, concluded his speech:

The mass rape of young, white working-class girls by gangs of Pakistani rapists is a rotting stain on our nation. This is not about Elon Musk. This is not a bandwagon of the far right. This is about the victims and ensuring swift and brutal justice is delivered to those demons responsible. It is about distinguishing between right and wrong.

Lowe was followed by the Labour MP Sarah Champion who started by saying she felt “disgusted” by what she has just heard. Champion went on:

Can you imagine, if you’re a victim or survivor, listening to that? I’m sure his intent is to get to the truth and get justice, but the language – please think about who hears our words.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK, told MPs that that a new inquiry was needed specifically into the involvement of British Pakistanis in rape gangs.

Speaking in the debate on the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, he claimed that, for the past 20 years, “at every attempt to try and have a proper national debate on the scale of this problem, it has been shut down”.

He said that Keir Starmer has stressed the fact that an inquiry has already taken place. But grooming gangs were not mentioned once in the 459-page report from the independent inquiry in child sexual abuse, he said, and Rotherham was only mentioned once.

That inquiry was so wide-ranging it was like a shotgun, he said. He went on:

What we need and what they calling for is a rifle shot this inquiry – one that looks specifically at to what extent were gangs of Pakistani men raping young white girls.

Because ultimately, it seems to me, there’s a deep racist element behind what happened.

Now I might be right, I might be wrong, but doesn’t the country deserve a full, open national inquiry.

Farage also restated Reform UK’s commitment to hold its own inquiry if the government does not hold its own.

But Farage was followed by the Labour MP Nadia Whittome, who accused Tory and Reform UK MPs of “weaponising the trauma of victims” for their own advantage. And she also said all races were involved in sexual abuse. She said:

Under successive governments, vulnerable children have been systematically failed by the institutions that were supposed to protect them, the police, social services, local authorities, the CPS, their schools. They were disbelieved and their lives were devalued.

We in this house owe it to victims and survivors of the past, the present and sadly the future, to give them justice and protection where the state previously so badly failed.

And in order to do that we cannot turn child sexual abuse and exploitation into a political football.

And I want to be clear too, that it’s by no means all members opposite who are guilty of this. There have been dedicated and powerful advocates for children on both sides of this house.

But the Conservative leadership and Reform MPs, marching to the beat of Elon Musk’s drum, are plainly weaponising the pain and the trauma of victims for their own political ends ….

When you say that child sexual abuse and exploitation is the result of alien cultures or a multicultural culturalism project that has failed, you mask the reality, which is that child sexual abuse and exploitation is happening in every area of this country, perpetrated by members of every social class, every race and every religion.

At this point some Reform UK MPs objected. Whittome went on:

The Reform MPs are chuntering opposite. That is a fact, and when you deny that, you are failing victims and survivors.

The Conservative have claimed that some academy school teachers could face a pay cut under the proposals in the schools bill to force academy schools to follow national pay rates when setting salaries for their staff. (See 10.32am.)

But Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told MPs during the debate this would not happen.

In response to a question from the Labour MP Jonathan Brash, who asked for a confirmation that “nothing at all in this bill that would result in a teacher in any school getting a pay cut”, Phillipson said:

He brings a wealth of experience to this House as a teacher and I know that teachers will want to hear what this will mean for their pay.

So I will reiterate today that the measures in this bill and the changes that we will bring forward to the schoolteachers’ pay and condition documents in the following remit will not cut teachers’ pay.

No 10 refuses to comment on Trump’s threat to use military force to seize Greenland from Denmark

Peter Walker

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, Downing Street said that Donald Trump’s threats to annex places including Greenland and Canada are “a matter for President Trump, refusing to offer any more comment.

In what seems set to become a repeated pattern of No 10 trying to pretend that Trump has not made his latest outrageous or inflammatory remarks, Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said: ““We look forward to working with President Trump and the coming administration.”

Asked about Trump’s refusal at a press conference on Tuesday to rule out using military force to take Greenland from Denmark, or to push Canada into becoming part of the US via economic sanctions, the spokesperson said: “It’s a matter for President Trump. I’m not going to get into a running commentary on this.”

In the same remarks, Trump also threatened to use military force to retake the Panama canal.

Labour has accused the Conservatives of using the child sexual abuse scandal to raise funds for the party.

As PA Media reports, the Tories have launched a campaign website “demandaninquirynow.com” and sent out emails to supporters asking them to sign a petition on the site which calls for a national inquiry into child grooming. The party also includes a link for donations at the bottom of its email.

A Labour spokesperson said:

Kemi Badenoch has stooped to a new low, fundraising for the Conservative party by playing politics with the safety of vulnerable children. This shows breath-taking disrespect to brave victims who are being used as a political football by the Conservatives.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has also called on Kemi Badenoch to retract her claim that a proposed definition of Islamophobia included “talking about sex groomers” as an example. (See 12.16pm and 3.27pm.) Zara Mohammed, secretary-general of the MCB, said:

Let me be absolutely clear – British Muslims unequivocally support the thorough investigation and prosecution of all child abusers, regardless of background. The MCB will support yet another investigation if proponents can explain why previous inquiries costing millions have not given them the answers they are looking for.

Those who seek to weaponise this issue against Muslims have already received answers they didn’t want from previous inquiries. Yet they persist in pursuing a divisive agenda rather than focusing on protecting children through evidence-based approaches.

What we will not accept is the cynical exploitation of child protection issues to demonise British Muslims. Mrs Badenoch’s comments represent a new low in the Conservative party’s persistent refusal to tackle anti-Muslim prejudice within its ranks.

The opposition leader should retract her misleading claims and focus instead on supporting evidence-based approaches to protecting all children in our society.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, opened the second reading debate on the children’s wellbeing and schools bill. In her speech, she said it was a bill that would protect children.

A vote against this bill today is a vote against the safety of our children, a vote against their childhoods and against their futures.

Today, Conservative MPs have a choice. They can choose to back measures to protect children or they can choose to chase headlines. They can choose to transform the lives of the most vulnerable young people in this country, or they can choose to sacrifice their safety for political gain.

Referring to the provisions in the bill to limit the freedoms enjoyed by academy schools in England, Graham Stuart, a former Tory minister and former chair of the Commons education committee, asked Phillipson why the government wanted to “dismantle the work of decades by members across this house [extending academies] and bring about kind-of a gross, socialist uniformity which will destroy the progress that has been made”.

Phillipson replied:

That’s just simply a mischaracterisation and [Stuart] knows it.

Kemi Badenoch told her shadow cabinet this week that her party will not be announcing any major new policies for at least two years, Harry Cole reports in a story for the Sun. He says:

The Tory leader unveiled her “three year plan” to turn the routed party around at shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday that leans heavily on Sir Keir Starmer’s own path to power.

2025 will be focused on “rebuilding trust” with voters with apologies for what the Conservatives got wrong in government …

Next year will focus on “establishing credibility” with efforts to contrast her team with Nigel Farage as an alternative government throughout 2026.

Then the remaining years of the parliament will finally see “plans for government” unveiled and policies set out – but not before the very end of 2027 at the earliest.

Downing Street has said that Keir Starmer is “open-minded” about the case for holding a new inquiry into grooming gangs, as demanded by the Tories.

At a post-PMQs lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson echoed what Keir Starmer told MPs earlier when he said that the government wanted to focus on implementing the recommendations from the national child abuse inquiry, and that a further inquiry might hold things up.

But the spokesperson also made it clear that a further inquiry has not been ruled out.

Asked if Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, was right to suggest in an interview yesterday that there could be a fresh inquiry, the spokesperson said:

The prime minister’s position is the same as Jess Phillips’, which is we are open of course and will always listen to what victims want in this case.

What we have heard from our engagement with victims and survivors group is they want to see action. That is why we are focused on following up the recommendations of Prof Alexis Jay and taking the actions we need to deliver justice …

As the prime minister said on Monday we will always remain open-minded. We will always listen to local authorities who want to take forward inquiries, or indeed further allegations that need to be followed up.

Asked whether a new inquiry would be off the table, the spokesperson said:

Our position is that victims groups have told us that they do not want to see a national inquiry, that we therefore share that view that that would not be the best way to deliver them justice.

We’re not taking some sort of binary approach on this … The government’s approach is rooted in what victims want in order to deliver justice.

The former Brexit negotiator Oliver Robbins is expected to be appointed as the UK Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant, Pippa Crerar reports.

As leader of the opposition, there is very little you can do to affect government policy. But you can always call for a public inquiry into something. It is easy, cheap (because governments never treat it as a spending commitment – although arguably they should) and normally it is popular with the media. According to a good Robert Hutton column on this topic yesterday, Ed Miliband called for at least 10 inquiries in his first year as Labour leader. But those standards, Kemi Badenoch has been rather restrained.

And, in terms of saying something that appeals to the rightwing media, Badenoch’s decision to leap on the grooming gangs inquiry bandwagon seems to be delivering. She has had a good press in the Tory papers on this issue. And, with the Speaker confirming her amendment will be put to a vote, she has go to the point where she can run this advertising campaign.

It is certainly more honest than the Labour advert from last year that it is clearly parodying.

Badenoch can also claim to have made progress in another respect. Talking about an inquiry, Keir Starmer was notably more equivocal at PMQs than he was on Monday, when he said Badenoch was jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Today Starmer was not trying to link Badenoch with the far right (even though he could, and arguably should, have done – see 9.35am) and he conceded there was a reasonable argument for saying an inquiry into grooming gangs should take place. (See 12.04pm.) It is just not an argument that has persuaded him, he implied.

That said, shameless opportunism is still shameless opportunism – even if it brings some short-term benefits. And, in the argument at PMQs today, Starmer beat Badenoch fairly easily. He repeatedly argued – forcefully and persuasively – that the Tories could not claim to be in favour of protecting children while at the same time voting against today’s bill. Badenoch could not really counter this argument at all.

She pushed back a bit more effectively when Starmer mocked her for raising an issue she had conspicously ignored in eight years as an MP, including as children’s minister and minister for women, but overall it was clear that Starmer was right on this point too.

Starmer was also compelling on the main problem with holding a fresh inquiry – namely, the time it will take, and the impact it will have on safeguarding policy in the meantime. Badenoch said that was “a weak excuse” because Starmer was arguing that “he’s not able to do two things at the same time”. But then she also said:

It is very possible to have shorter inquiries, especially if they are covering areas that have not been looked at yet.

This seems to be a contradiction in terms.

And there was another contradiction when she argued a fresh inquiry was needed – to stop unpleasant people stigmatising Muslims.

By refusing this inquiry he is enabling those people who wish to smear all British Muslims based on the actions of a small minority.

Perhaps she should take an interest in who ‘“those people” actually are. Did she hear Robert Jenrick on the Today programme yesterday?

Starmer was right to accuse Badenoch of jumping on a bandwagon and, in following an agenda essentially set by Tory media voices, Badenoch is acting very much as William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith did when they were doing her job. That might be enough to get you through PMQs. But it won’t take you to No 10. Leaders of the opposition only become truly effective when the papers are following their agenda, not the other way round. For Badenoch, that point is still a long way off.