Yvette Cooper must “listen” to calls for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal if Baroness Casey’s nation-wide review of the scale of the problem says one is needed, a rising star ‘red wall’ Labour MP has said.
Jake Richards, Labour MP for Rother Valley, said that while he did not support calls for a national inquiry now, that could change after Casey’s report is published in a few weeks’ time.
Casey was asked by the Home Secretary, to carry out a “rapid national audit to uncover the scale and profile of group-based offending in the UK today, including ethnicity” in January.
That review by Casey is now due to be completed by the end of this month. When asked what the Government’s response should be if Casey recommends a national inquiry, Richards said: “We’d have to listen to Dame Louise Casey very, very, very carefully on that.
Yvette Cooper must “listen” to calls for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal if Baroness Casey’s nation-wide review of the scale of the problem says one is needed, a rising star ‘red wall’ Labour MP has said
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“And if that’s the conclusion she comes to, then I hope the Government will listen to what she has to say.”
Richards told Chopper’s Political Podcast that the priority was to implement the findings of the Alexis Jay report into child grooming and exploitation – a part which dealt with Pakistani heritage rape gangs – which was published in 2022.
Richards said that he was not worried about going after the perpetrators.
He said: “I’m not scared about that at all. I can be very, very straight. My constituency is in Rotherham. We had a real problem with gangs, which were predominantly Pakistani males raping mainly white girls.”
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Earlier reports into the rape gangs by Alexis Jay and by Baroness Casey “concluded that one of the reasons that wasn’t dealt with strongly enough was because of fears of being racist. Now that cannot happen again.
“And that was over a decade ago. So I have absolutely no problems with talking about those issues in those terms and anything to stop it happening again.
“I’ve worked with victims of these awful offences. I know the devastating effect it has on them and their families. I continue to speak with survivors regularly, both as a constituency MP, but also because of my former job.
“The most important thing is getting justice for them and stopping these crimes happening again.
Jake Richards, Labour MP for Rother Valley, said that while he did not support calls for a national inquiry now, that could change after Casey’s report is published in a few weeks’ time
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“And if that means calling out what the reality is and some people saying say that’s racist I don’t care. We have to stop these crimes from being being committed.
“And that shouldn’t be controversial because I said two inquiries have already taken place and made that, that that those facts very clear.”
Listen to the interviews with Jake Richards, Gerry Gunster and Rory Cellan-Jones on Chopper’s Political Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or GB News’ YouTube channel, or wherever you find your podcasts.
