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.
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