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Baroness Louise Casey pictured in London in 2023 Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/AP
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Louise Casey criticises Tories for politicising her grooming gangs report
Good morning. After the Home Office yesterday published Louise Casey’s audit of the grooming gang scandal, none of the political parties at Westminster seriously challenged any of her conclusions, or recommendations. But, of course, that does not mean there was consensus. As reported here yesterday, an almighty blame game commenced (or resumed, to be more accurate).
In an interview on Newsnight last night, Casey said she was “disappointed” by the way her report was being politicised and criticised the Conservatives in particular.
Asked what she felt about the “politicisation” of her report, Casey replied:
I’m disappointed by it, to put it mildly.
I really hoped – and hope still – that the report is so clear, it’s so straightforward. We need to change some laws. We need to do a national criminal investigation. We need to get on with the national inquiry with local footprint in it. And ideally, wouldn’t it be great if everybody came behind that and just backed it and got on with it?
Asked what she felt about the proceedings in the Commons yesterday, Casey said:
I just felt, dare I say it, I felt the opposition could have just been a bit, ‘Yes, we will all come together behind you.’ Maybe there’s still time to do that. I think it’s just so important that they do.
It almost doesn’t matter right now, does it, what political party people are part of. We’ve identified there’s a problem, it’s been a problem there a long time, and it’s about time we drew a line in the sand.
There does not seem much chance that Kemi Badenoch will take any notice. She has scheduled a press conference today and, judging by her X feed last night, she intends to celebrate what she perceives as a victory for her campaigning. The 10 most recent posts on her feed are either tweets or retweets about the grooming gang scandal. This is the one she has pinned.
This national inquiry is a hard-won victory for the brave survivors who refused to be silenced — who gave up their anonymity to expose the institutions that failed them.
Labour fought it every step of the way. They voted against it. Mocked campaigners. Smeared them. Branded it a “far-right bandwagon” and a “dog whistle.”
Now they’re pretending they supported it all along? Disgraceful. Their hand was forced.
Our job now is to make sure this inquiry delivers justice for every survivor. No more delays.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, chairs cabinet. Keir Starmer is still in Canada at the G7 summit.
10.30am: Louise Casey, the crossbench peer and former civil servant, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about her grooming gangs report published yesterday.
11am: Kemi Badenoch holds a press conference.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on independence at the Scotland 2050 conference in Edinburgh. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is speaking at 2.10pm.
Early afternoon (UK time): Starmer takes questions from British print journalists and broadcasters at the G7 summit.
Late afternoon: MPs debate amendments to the crime and policing bill relating to abortion. They will vote at 7pm.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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Tories call for grooming gangs inquiry to be extended to cover Scotland
The Conservatives are calling for the new national grooming gangs inquiry to be extended to cover Scotland. At present, it is only due to cover England and Wales.
Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary, has proposed this in a letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary. He said:
Now that the Labour government has finally bowed to the huge public demand for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal it is essential that it is truly national in scope.
That means extending the remit to include Scotland, where there have been well-documented cases of gangs responsible for the rape and sexual abuse of young women.
The home secretary must work with the Scottish Government to agree the scope of the inquiry because it’s imperative that the voices of Scottish victims of these vile gangs are heard and appropriate lessons learned for the future.
Kemi Badenoch is not the only party leader being accused of opportunism over grooming gangs. Rupert Lowe, who was elected as a Reform UK MP but who left the party after a bitter row with Nigel Farage, posted this on social media this morning.
I sat next to Farage in the Commons when he stated that Reform would ‘raise the money’ for a rape gang inquiry. I applauded him.
For that, I am sorry. Nothing happened. Nothing was done. Reform did nothing.
It is filthy politics, and I feel deeply ashamed for my role in it.
‘Vital’ that British steel gets Trump tariff deal after UK-US trade pact, say unions
Steel trade unions have said it is “absolutely vital” that the UK rapidly secures a deal to protect the sector from Donald Trump’s tariffs, after the industry was excluded from an initial UK-US pact signed last night, Julia Kollewe and Jasper Jolly report.
Here are some pictures of Keir Starmer at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, yesterday (where many of the events happened late evening or overnight UK time).
Minister says UK still hoping to reduce US tariffs on steel, after Trump/Starmer trade deal leaves this unresolved
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump signed off a UK-US trade deal at the G7 summit in Canada, with the US president saying Britain would have protection against future tariffs “because I like them”, Peter Walker reports.
Under the deal, the UK aerospace sector avoids all US tariffs, and the car industry faces tariffs of 10%, down from 25%.
But the steel industy still faces tariffs of 25%.
Speaking about the deal on BBC Breakfast this morning, Heidi Alexander, the transport secrtary, said:
We’re working through some technical detail around steel because we want to bring that 25% tariff that applies at the moment obviously down further.
But I think the fact that we’re in this unique position, we’re the only country in the world to have already got a trade agreement with the US.
We are working on getting that implemented. We’ve made some progress on car manufacturing, which is going to be really important for companies such as Jaguar Land Rover based in Solihull.
Also on aerospace, as you will have heard, really important for companies like Rolls-Royce, and we’re determined to go further and we’ll be working on those issues around steel in the coming days, weeks and months.
Louise Casey criticises Tories for politicising her grooming gangs report
Good morning. After the Home Office yesterday published Louise Casey’s audit of the grooming gang scandal, none of the political parties at Westminster seriously challenged any of her conclusions, or recommendations. But, of course, that does not mean there was consensus. As reported here yesterday, an almighty blame game commenced (or resumed, to be more accurate).
In an interview on Newsnight last night, Casey said she was “disappointed” by the way her report was being politicised and criticised the Conservatives in particular.
Asked what she felt about the “politicisation” of her report, Casey replied:
I’m disappointed by it, to put it mildly.
I really hoped – and hope still – that the report is so clear, it’s so straightforward. We need to change some laws. We need to do a national criminal investigation. We need to get on with the national inquiry with local footprint in it. And ideally, wouldn’t it be great if everybody came behind that and just backed it and got on with it?
Asked what she felt about the proceedings in the Commons yesterday, Casey said:
I just felt, dare I say it, I felt the opposition could have just been a bit, ‘Yes, we will all come together behind you.’ Maybe there’s still time to do that. I think it’s just so important that they do.
It almost doesn’t matter right now, does it, what political party people are part of. We’ve identified there’s a problem, it’s been a problem there a long time, and it’s about time we drew a line in the sand.
There does not seem much chance that Kemi Badenoch will take any notice. She has scheduled a press conference today and, judging by her X feed last night, she intends to celebrate what she perceives as a victory for her campaigning. The 10 most recent posts on her feed are either tweets or retweets about the grooming gang scandal. This is the one she has pinned.
This national inquiry is a hard-won victory for the brave survivors who refused to be silenced — who gave up their anonymity to expose the institutions that failed them.
Labour fought it every step of the way. They voted against it. Mocked campaigners. Smeared them. Branded it a “far-right bandwagon” and a “dog whistle.”
Now they’re pretending they supported it all along? Disgraceful. Their hand was forced.
Our job now is to make sure this inquiry delivers justice for every survivor. No more delays.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, chairs cabinet. Keir Starmer is still in Canada at the G7 summit.
10.30am: Louise Casey, the crossbench peer and former civil servant, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about her grooming gangs report published yesterday.
11am: Kemi Badenoch holds a press conference.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on independence at the Scotland 2050 conference in Edinburgh. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is speaking at 2.10pm.
Early afternoon (UK time): Starmer takes questions from British print journalists and broadcasters at the G7 summit.
Late afternoon: MPs debate amendments to the crime and policing bill relating to abortion. They will vote at 7pm.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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