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Lisa Nandy has rejected claims that Elon Musk’s slew of social media posts about grooming gangs pushed the government into a climbdown on the scandal.
On Thursday, the home secretary announced an audit looking into the current scale and nature of “gang-based exploitation” across the country, as well as local reviews into grooming in some areas.
The change of position came after three Labour MPs from the North West and Manchester mayor Andy Burnham broke ranks to demand a rethink. It also came alongside weeks of pressure including from the billionaire X-owner for a national inquiry into grooming, after the government rejected one.
But, speaking in the Commons, Yvette Cooper said local reviews would provide more answers and change than a nationwide probe.
Asked if the raft of new policies came as a result of the billionaire’s intervention, Ms Nandy said: “I utterly refute that”, insisting that the government has been working on this issue “for a very long time”.
“We’ve been very focused on this issue, and it was part of our manifesto. We were very outspoken about it in opposition, and we’ve continued to be outspoken about it in government, and wasted no time in acting”, she told Sky News.
The culture secretary said the government has been “working alongside victims to make sure that they’re empowered, and we will not change that, regardless of the noise that we see on social media”.
Speaking to the BBC, she added: “We’re not a government that governs by social media. We govern for the real world.”
Ms Cooper’s announcements came a day after she was threatened with legal action over the child grooming issue.
Former police detective Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012, said she would take the home secretary to court unless she took “urgent steps to allay widespread public concern” over gangs sexually exploiting children.
Giving a statement to parliament on Thursday, Ms Cooper laid out the details of two key parts of a £10m plan to tackle grooming gangs and child sexual abuse, namely a three-month “rapid audit” of the current situation across the country, and “victim-centred, locally-led inquiries” in five areas.
Ms Nandy said the audit will effectively be a “review of the existing evidence”.
“We know that there are evidence gaps, we need to make sure that we’re collecting the proper data on things like ethnicity”, she said.
While Ms Cooper’s plans for local reviews drew criticism for not going far enough, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp describing them as “wholly inadequate”, Ms Nandy said she doesn’t want to put “brave young girls through the ordeal of having to give evidence again”.
“They have already spent seven years going through a National Inquiry which made 20 recommendations, not single one of which was implemented under the last government”, she said.
The home secretary also announced that the government would lay out a clear timetable by Easter for implementing the recommendations laid out in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) – something campaigners have said will bring “fundamental and cultural change”.
Lucy Duckworth, national policy lead for The Survivors Trust, said: “It’s really good news that IICSA’s recommendations are finally to be acted upon.
“As a whole programme of change, IICSA’s recommendations will bring about fundamental and cultural change in how we protect children from sexual abuse of any form and how we support victims and survivors to recover from the trauma they experienced.”
Campaign group Act On IICSA, which is chaired by Prof Jay, said it was “a pivotal step in addressing the systemic issues surrounding child sexual abuse”.
In a slew of social media posts criticising the Labour government, Mr Musk had attacked safeguarding minister Jess Phillips on social media after she declined a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town.
The last Tory government had also rejected a similar request from Oldham council for a public inquiry, saying it is for local authorities to commission local inquiries.
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