Rupert Lowe believes the country must ‘exorcise’ the grooming gang scandal (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
Public servants who failed to stop the grooming gangs scandal must not escape punishment, according to a Reform UK MP who has won the praise of .
Rupert Lowe vowed that the campaign for a full national inquiry with statutory powers will continue so this “stain on our country” can be addressed.
He insists that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans for a review of evidence and five local inquiries do not go far enough.
Mr Lowe said: “I think the country needs to exorcise this. In order to be able to move on from it we’ve got to be able to understand what happened, why it happened, how it happened and how we stop it happening again.
“We then need to punish those people involved in it – I don’t think they can wash their hands like Pontius Pilate and be allowed to move on.
“I think they have got to be punished for failing to do what they were supposed to do, and that doesn’t matter whether it’s local Labour officials, whether it’s police, whether it’s social services – I don’t care who it is.
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“This has been a stain on our country and we need to sort it out.”
He said Labour is “very keen to kick the ball into the long grass as quickly as they can”.
Mr Musk, a technology entrepreneur who is one of President Trump’s closest allies and who owns the social media service X, has launched fierce attacks on Sir over the grooming scandal and criticised Reform leader . But last month he said that Mr Lowe’s statements “make a lot of sense”.
Mr Lowe now has 274,000 followers on X and has warm words for the Tesla boss.
“Look, he’s clearly a visionary,” he said. “He’s the most successful entrepreneur on the planet and the fact he has chosen to both follow us and re-Tweet what we’re doing, it’s a privilege and an honour – we love it.”
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A Home Office spokesperson defended the Government’s response to the grooming scandal, saying: “The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was a full national inquiry, lasting seven years and engaging over 7,000 victims and survivors under the last Government.
“The Home Secretary has announced this Government is going to focus on taking clear action against all its recommendations to deliver change for victims and survivors, to target perpetrators and safeguard children.
“The Home Secretary also announced a raft of new measures and £10million funding to drive change at a national and local level to address the stain of grooming gangs.
“We are determined to get justice for more victims and survivors. We are working at pace to ensure sufficient powers are available for local inquiries, which includes implementing the duty of candour, to make sure those who are responsible are held to account.”