Calling the rape gangs a ‘dog whistle' issue is utterly disgraceful
It's when under pressure that people reveal what they think and who they truly are – and Labour's Lucy Powell was clearly feeling the heat on the BBC's Any Questions this week.
When journalist Tim Montgomerie (full disclosure: the founder of ConservativeHome, where I work) made a reasonable point about the dangers of allowing oversensitivity to community cohesion to trump things like child protection, as it had in places such as Rotherham, Powell said this:
'Oh, you want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?'
Perhaps, like Sir Keir Starmer, she would have been more comfortable talking about Adolescence, the recent smash-hit fictional drama about a crime which, as seen in the show, has never taken place.
The Prime Minister spent weeks happily playing an unpaid role in Netflix's publicity campaign, referring to the series as a 'documentary' and calling for it to be shown in schools. Yet he refused to be interviewed for Channel 4's actual documentary Groomed: A National Scandal, nor has he even confirmed he watched it.
Powell is not some random backbencher. As Leader of the House of Commons, she's an important minister in this Labour Government.
But perhaps therefore her outburst should not surprise us, for Starmer's ministers have given no impression so much as that they just wish the rape gangs scandal would go away.
Why else would they be fighting tooth and nail against calls for a proper national enquiry? Or more targeted investigations such as into specific allegations of collusions between the gangs and local police forces, as called for by Conservative MP Nick Timothy.
Politicians normally love holding inquiries. In this country they're so slow and so expensive that they've become the preferred way for ministers to look like they're taking action whilst kicking an issue into the long grass.
Not here though. Labour insists that the existing inquiries have been sufficient. But again, Powell showed what they really think: the case Montgomerie was making on any questions, which she dismissed as a 'dog whistle'? Literally just the conclusions of the 2014 Jay Report.
It isn't difficult to see why the Government is acting this way. Just look at Thursday's local election results, which saw sectarian Muslim candidate taking council seats in Labour heartlands. Or the last general election, where four 'Gaza independents' were elected and senior figures such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips almost lost their seats.
The Labour Party has until recently been happy to have this bloc inside the tent, and is frightened of the electoral consequences of losing it. If keeping such voters happy means suppressing an inquiry into the rape gangs – or selecting MPs more interested in a new airport in Mirpur than rubbish piling up on the streets in their own constituencies – then so be it.
Perhaps there is also an element of straightforward denial, too. If you built your entire politics on the idea that Britain is an integration success story and only bad people would attack our 'diverse communities', as have politicians like Powell, you too would be very wary of collecting the evidence.
She herself is probably doomed, if for no other reason that this row means the nation is once again talking about Rotherham. But the Government's actions – or inactions – speak louder than words, and it's clear that Powell has only said what other ministers are content merely to think.
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