EXCLUSIVE: Shadow Dwelling Secretary Chris Philp is demanding Sir Keir Starmer take the stand and provides proof underneath oath.
Sir Keir Starmer has been referred to as to present proof on the new grooming gangs inquiry (Picture: Getty)
Keir Starmer should give a public apology to grooming gangs victims and be investigated by the inquiry into the scandal, Tories have demanded.
Shadow dwelling secretary Chris Philp says an Categorical investigation into the Prime Minister’s dealing with of instances when he was in command of prosecutions is “deeply regarding” and raises “very severe” questions.
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In a bombshell letter to the probe, he mentioned Sir Keir “boasted” that he had overseen the authorized course of, however the information uncovered recommend there have been “disgraceful failures”.
Addressed to Dwelling Secretary Shabana Mahmood and inquiry chairwoman Baroness Longfield, he wrote: “Maybe Keir Starmer’s private involvement in these failures is why he resisted a correct inquiry for thus lengthy.
“Keir Starmer ought to now publicly apologise to the victims affected. I might additionally like an assurance that the inquiry will particularly look into Keir Starmer’s oversight of those instances as Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Provided that he needs to be a topic of the inquiry, he also needs to be recused from any involvement in choices referring to the inquiry.
“These victims had been badly let down. They deserve solutions, and there should be accountability.”
READ MORE: Keir Starmer’s darkest grooming gangs scandal uncovered
Mr Philp’s intervention follows an Categorical investigation which revealed attorneys working underneath Sir Keir, who was Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, selected to painting a sufferer, who was raped a whole bunch of occasions herself, as a “teenage pimp” for “tactical causes” to safe a conviction in opposition to grownup perpetrators.
The Tory MP’s letter additionally highlights the Categorical’s revelation that underneath Sir Keir’s watch, the Crown Prosecution Service additionally sought lesser costs in opposition to Rochdale gang member Adil Khan – even after DNA evaluation of a foetus confirmed he had impregnated a 13-year-old woman who later had an abortion.
That call meant Khan solely served three years of an eight-year sentence for conspiracy to commit sexual exercise with a baby slightly than rape.
Mr Philp is searching for assurances that the Prime Minister “might be summoned to present proof to the Inquiry underneath oath” and be formally barred from any involvement in authorities choices referring to the impartial assessment of the nationwide scandal.
“There should be actual accountability – together with the place these accountable now maintain the very best workplace within the land,” he added.
The demand for sworn testimony comes after the Prime Minister repeatedly claimed private duty for the Rochdale case in public boards.
The primary trial of the Rochdale gang in 2012 noticed 9 males convicted for a complete of 77 years.
Talking about it in April final 12 months within the Home of Commons, the PM informed Kemi Badenoch: “I oversaw the primary grooming gang prosecution, which was in Rochdale, greater than a decade in the past.
“When that file was dropped at my consideration, I observed that one of many defendants had not been prosecuted beforehand. Removed from masking up, I requested for that file so I may take a look at it. On the again of that, I modified all the strategy to prosecutions.”
The group was discovered to have been working a baby intercourse abuse ring from native takeaway retailers and taxi ranks that focused 5 weak younger white ladies with free meals, alcohol, and medicines.
Keir Starmer’s grooming gangs narrative has unravelled in 2026 (Picture: Dan Dove)
2008 – 2011: Grooming gangs topic ladies to horrific abuse. Throughout this time, police secretly seize a sufferer’s aborted foetus to extract DNA with out her data.
2011: Sir Keir Starmer oversees the CPS’s prosecution file. His authorized crew twists a sufferer’s testimony, falsely portraying the harmless teenager in courtroom as a predatory pimp.
Might 2012: 9 gang members are convicted, however the CPS underneath costs rapist Adil Khan with “conspiracy” regardless of having definitive DNA proof of rape from the aborted foetus.
January 2013: Starmer tells the Dwelling Affairs Choose Committee that the Rochdale prosecution was an “in the end profitable” mannequin of “good apply” for the CPS.
2015: Due to the lenient charging choices made by the CPS, Khan is launched again into the group after serving simply three years in jail.
January 2024: A damning 173-page impartial assessment finds the CPS’s “teenage pimp” tactic amounted to “deplorable additional abuse of a CSE survivor”.
April 2025: Starmer in Parliament says he personally “requested to see the Rochdale file” to make sure offenders had been charged.
June 2025: A brand new nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs is introduced.
February 2026: The Categorical publishes an investigation that reveals throughout Starmer’s tenure, the CPS created a regular nationwide format for controversial “paedo ASBOs”, which let suspected little one abusers off with warning letters slightly than pursuing full prosecutions.
April 25 2026: Shadow Dwelling Secretary Chris Philp writes to the inquiry chair demanding Starmer take the stand.
Nevertheless, a 2024 impartial assessment commissioned by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham slammed the actions of the CPS throughout that trial and described its behaviour in direction of one Rochdale sufferer as so reprehensible it amounted to the “deplorable additional abuse of a CSE [child sexual exploitation] survivor.”
The report additionally discovered that authorities missed warning indicators for over 260 victims and that, even after 60 convictions and a number of ongoing police investigations, near 100 perpetrators stay at massive.
The decision for the Prime Minister to present proof was echoed by the police officer who first blew the whistle on the scandal in Rochdale, Maggie Oliver.
“I’ve all the time demanded legal accountability for individuals who so horrifically failed the Rochdale victims,” she informed the Categorical.
“That features the individual claiming credit score for these choices, which on this case is Sir Keir Starmer.
“His dealing with of the Rochdale instances will not be new to me. I lived with the horror of the failings on that job for 15 years and it was the CPS’s charging choices that led me to resign from Larger Manchester Police in 2012. That call was not taken frivolously. It modified my life endlessly.
“These weren’t errors. They had been catastrophic choices which didn’t recognise the magnitude of the abuse these youngsters endured.
“Keir Starmer has claimed these catastrophic charging choices as his, so he should reply for them – underneath oath. There needs to be accountability and penalties for these accountable. Nevertheless excessive up the chain these people are. Even when it’s our Prime Minister.”
A Dwelling Workplace spokesman mentioned: “We have now established the Impartial Inquiry into Grooming Gangs to get the solutions that victims and survivors of those horrendous crimes deserve.
“The Inquiry has full statutory powers to compel proof because it sees match, and to get to the reality of what occurred.
“Victims and survivors might be on the coronary heart of this Inquiry, with their voices shaping its work from the outset.”
A spokesman for The Statutory Impartial Inquiry into Grooming Gangs mentioned: “As an impartial Inquiry, we strategy all issues in an neutral and proof‑led approach. For that cause, we don’t touch upon particular person instances or on particular policing or prosecutorial choices.
“The Inquiry will study any issue that contributed to patterns of abuse, or to how and why authorities failed victims and survivors. We might be guided by the proof. Victims and survivors deserve the reality.”
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