The shadow home secretary has said it is "morally wrong" for the Labour Party to reject a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. MPs voted down the Conservative Party amendment in the Commons, but Chris Philp urged Sir Keir Starmer to "change your mind". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00This is about standing up for the victims of incredibly serious crimes, young teenage girls
00:05who were systemically raped by gangs of men predominantly of Pakistani origin over many,
00:10many years. And local councils, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service failed to believe them,
00:16didn't take them seriously, ignored these crimes and in some cases actively covered it up.
00:23This is about getting to the truth. We need a national statutory public inquiry that covers
00:28not just some towns, as previous reports have done, but covers all the towns where this happened
00:33and has the legal powers to get evidence and make witnesses appear. We need to get to the truth,
00:38victims are asking for that and I just don't understand why Keir Starmer and the Labour Party
00:43are refusing to initiate this proper public inquiry. Of course we support introducing
00:48those measures but we need to find a way of getting the government to agree to introduce
00:52this public inquiry. The Prime Minister could just agree to do that, he could have stood up
00:56at the dispatch box this afternoon at Prime Minister's Questions and announced this inquiry
01:00but he didn't do that. Now they voted this measure down this evening but look it's not too late and
01:04if Keir Starmer is listening I just appeal to him, please listen to those victims' families.
01:09It's so important that we do justice for them, that we find out the truth, that those people
01:13responsible for ignoring or even covering up these crimes are brought to justice. Not a single person
01:19has put in a position of authority, has been personally held to account for what they did.
01:24This inquiry could have done that and I just urge Keir Starmer to please change your mind
01:29and introduce this inquiry. We'll do everything we can to keep the victims at the front of this
01:35debate and to try and get the government to do the right thing. It's not too late,
01:38Keir Starmer could still announce an inquiry and I really hope we can pressure him, persuade him
01:44to change his mind, do the right thing for victims. What the Labour Party, the Labour
01:48government have done today is morally wrong.