Sir Keir Starmer faced Kemi Badenoch at the first PMQs of 2025, against the increasingly incendiary backdrop of a row about grooming gangs largely driven by Elon Musk. The Tories attempted to force a new inquiry via an amendment to the government’s education bill, but it was rejected.
Wednesday 8 January 2025 20:55, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
A torrent of posts from X owner Elon Musk has thrown an unexpected spotlight on the issue of historical grooming gangs in the last week.
In the early 2010s, dozens of men, the majority of British Pakistani origin, were convicted of crimes including rape, sex trafficking, and child sexual exploitation that had gone undetected for years.
On today’s Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by our home editor Jason Farrell and Lucy Duckworth, from The Survivors Trust, herself a survivor of child abuse, to explain why the recommendations of numerous inquiries have still not been implemented.
The Survivors Trust runs a free, confidential national helpline 7 days a week for survivors of rape or sexual abuse and violence aged 16+.
You can call 0808 801 0818 or text 07860 022 956 for support.
By Sky News Data and Forensics Unit
The grooming gangs scandal has been in the public eye for more than a decade, with multiple public enquiries and a string of prosecutions.
All of that went apparently unnoticed by the world’s richest man, until a few days ago.
Sky News analysis suggests just a handful of right-wing accounts on X prompted and developed Elon Musk’s interest in the topic, which has ignited debate online and offline.
This shows the volume of discussion on the subject on X before – and after – Musk’s involvement, looking at the keywords of grooming gangs and rape gangs.
The impact of the far right
There have been at least 40 million engagements since he took interest, according to Talkwalker, a social media monitoring tool.
Condemnation of rape and grooming gangs isn’t far-right in itself: the entire British public shares exactly the same position.
But there’s evidence that Musk’s introduction to the topic is a result of right-wing and far-right accounts on X.
This is Musk’s first post on the subject – on New Year’s Eve. He’s replying to an account he follows – and there are less than 1,000 of those – which focuses on immigration and crime statistics.
Tommy Robinson among most influential
Sky News has analysed more than 2,000 of Musk’s posts over this recent period to understand which are the most influential accounts, in terms of whom he replies to and who he reposts.
Right-wing commentators and news aggregators are prominent, as is far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson.
Peter Sweden, the account Musk has interacted with the most, has previously apologised for posts denying the Holocaust.
Ian Miles Cheong, a commentator based in Malaysia, and Visegrad 24, set up by South-African Polish advertiser Stefan Tompson, are influential right-wing news accounts with millions of followers between them.
And it’s taking up a lot of Musk’s time and efforts.
For a man with many interests, from space rockets to population birth rates, our research found that around a third of his recent output on X has been largely focused on grooming gangs.
Musk’s new favourite UK politician?
That has involved interactions with specific British politicians, notably his targeting of the government’s safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
But it even includes Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, whom Musk called a “cretin”.
Most interacted with by Musk, though, and also on that list above, is Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP.
After saying that Reform’s leader Nigel Farage didn’t “have what it takes”, Musk seems to think Lowe does.
The Tories’ attempts to amend the government’s schools bill with a requirement for an inquiry into grooming gangs did rather overshadow what’s actually in the proposed legislation.
It’s called the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
One of the main measures is parents losing the automatic right to homeschool their childrenif they are considered vulnerable.
It comes after the parents of Sara Sharif were jailed for her murder just before the Christmas break, having subjected her to shocking abuse.
Other measures include:
That last point has come in for particular criticism, as some fear it’ll just lower standards at academies rather than improve standards across the board, but the government has insisted aligning them won’t result in any teachers losing out on pay and benefits.
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates is now joining Sophy Ridge to discuss a rare Treasury statement we received today – on market moves.
The Treasury insisted fiscal rules in the UK are “non-negotiable”.
Sam says there have been lots of questions to the Treasury after the cost of borrowing went up – and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has issued a statement.
Watch: Ed Conway breaks down the numbers
‘This is slightly odd’
“They don’t do this very often,” Sam says.
“It is Rachel Reeves’ spokesman saying no one should be under any doubt that meeting the fiscal rules is non-negotiable, and the government will have an iron grip on the public finances.”
Sam says this is the chancellor saying: “I will keep my promises.”
“Now, the mere fact that the chancellor is having to tell the world that she will keep her promises is slightly odd, it will immediately cause everybody to worry if she will.”
Is chancellor on collision course with colleagues?
But Sam explains that in reality, there is now a “real chance” that she will “break her self-imposed borrowing limit, having to fund day-to-day government spending through borrowing rather than taxation, and as a consequence will have to take urgent action in March at the spring statement.”
He says this will mean “implementing spending cuts in the spending review”.
“That will be painful and will put her on a collision course with others of her own cabinet who desperately want more cash.”
Stephen Morgan, the education minister, told Sophy Ridge it is “absolute nonsense” that Labour is “rolling away freedoms and flexibilities” from academy schools.
He was asked about claims the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will reverse developments put in place by former prime minister Tony Blair by bringing academies more in line with state schools.
Mr Morgan said: “We want to make sure that every child goes to a brilliant local school, and we see high rising standards in every school. We want to learn from the best of academies.”
But Sophy pushes that academies will now have to follow the national curriculum – which they don’t currently have to do.
Mr Morgan said that Labour also wants to “encourage more innovation and flexibility”.
He added: “I think it’s absolutely right that young people get a core offer no matter what school that they go to, so that every child can succeed and thrive.”
Now joining Sophy Ridge on the Politics Hub is education minister Stephen Morgan, who she spoke to shortly before a Conservative amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing Bill faced a vote today.
The Tories were calling for another national inquiry into grooming gangs, but the amendment was defeated in the House of Commons.
Sophy asks if Labour would be open to making changes to the bill at the committee stage, where it wouldn’t derail their entire plan, as was suggested earlier by the Liberal Democrats.
“That’s the right approach to take,” Mr Morgan told Sky News.
“What we’re seeing from the Conservatives is a wrecking amendment which would basically allow this bill not to go any further.
“That’s political game playing and not what I think victims want. Victims want to see meaningful change.”
Over to central lobby in parliament, where shadow home secretary Chris Philp is speaking to Sophy Ridge moments after a Conservative amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was defeated.
The amendment would have looked to force a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs, which Labour have refused.
He tells Sky News “we do need this national, statutory public inquiry to look into this scandal”.
Mr Philp claims that previous inquiries have been “limited”.
“The local inquiries that have happened… don’t have the legal powers to make public bodies produce evidence,” he adds.
Mr Philp adds he is “disappointed, frustrated and angry” that the Conservative attempt to push for a national inquiry failed in the Commons.
PM has ‘let down’ victims
“Keir Starmer could have stood at the despatch box this afternoon and agreed to an inquiry – but he didn’t,” he adds.
The shadow home secretary says he is “mystified” as to why the prime minister did not agree to a government-led inquiry.
He claims Sir Keir has “let down” victims of grooming gangs today.
Speaking at PMQs earlier, the PM said victims he’d met this morning told him they wanted action rather than another inquiry.
MPs have just voted against an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill proposed by the Conservatives.
The amendment would have looked to force a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs, which Labour have refused.
It was voted down by 364 votes to 111.
However, it’s important to note that had the amendment passed, it would not actually have forced the government to launch an inquiry.
It would instead simply have killed the legislation, which is focused on early years education (read more here).
Speaking at PMQs earlier, Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged the argument for another inquiry but urged Kemi Badenoch to “withdraw her wrecking amendment”.
He also said having spoken to victims of grooming gangs this morning, “they were clear they want action now, not the delay of a further inquiry”.
Sir Keir wants the government to focus on implementing the recommendations from a 2022 report instead.
MPs are voting right now on whether there should be a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
We’ll bring you the result shortly.
The vote is symbolic and won’t pass because of Keir Starmer’s huge majority, but the Tories are using it to try to pile pressure on Labour.
The government says if it were to pass, it would scupper a major piece of legislation designed to protect children and raise education standards in England – a bill I actually think is really important and want to talk about.
Who’s right?
There are four million children in academies and free schools, and today’s bill would roll back reforms going all the way back to Tony Blair in 2001.
Academies will no longer have freedom to set their own pay and conditions for teachers – and will have to follow the national curriculum.
Labour say this is about making sure all children get an excellent education, but the Conservatives claim it’s an act of political vandalism that would abolish academies in all but name.
There are a lot of political fireworks going on this evening, but this is a bill that could have a huge impact on education in this country.
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live.
Joining us tonight is education minister Stephen Morgan.
On the panel are former Tory minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Jeremy Corbyn’s ex-policy chief Andrew Fisher.
You can watch in the stream below or at the top of this page, and we’ll bring you rolling updates from the programme too.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
