Keir Starmer has rebuffed demands for a national inquiry into rape gangs (Image: PA)
Cack-handed is so tone-deaf that he’s made himself the face of opposition to a national inquiry into the rape of thousands of girls across his own country.
He spent Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday arguing against the case for a national inquiry, telling Tory leader that rather than focusing on an inquiry, the Government would act to protect children now.
There is of course a huge problem with this argument, namely that it’s impossible to retrospectively protect the girls, now adults, who were raped on what called an “industrial scale”.
Sir Keir rightly pointed out that any such inquiry could be a difficult experience for the victims of these rapes by gangs of predominantly Pakistani heritage.
But without the possibility of undoing rapes, what other option is there than to find out exactly what happened and which police officers and other authorities turned a blind eye to these most evil of crimes? It’s the best we can hope for relating to these specific victims.
Inquiries are far from a perfect method of redressing past wrongs. They are slow and frustrating and no substitute for action. But we can learn from them and, if lessons are learned and implemented, action against the most evil people in Britain can grow more robust.
By insisting, as Ms Badenoch put it, that the Government can’t do two things at once, on such a nakedly urgent matter, is admitting more than he may realise.
If we live in a society that cannot both protect today’s children from abuse while investigating past evils then that says something incredibly disturbing about the leadership of this country.
A state that cannot protect its children and seek justice for them when it fails does not belong to the civilised world.
Is that how you want voters to think of the once-great nation of which you are currently at the helm, Prime Minister?