Watch the moment Labour Party activist Chris Worrall is grilled by ex-MP Simon Danczuk over the party’s recent conduct in relation to the grooming gangs row.
The pair rowed over Jess Phillips’s decision not to launch a national inquiry into the scandal that has drawn scorn from Elon Musk, among others.
According to Worrall, Keir Starmer’s Government is taking sufficient action in addressing the concerns of victims.
“As a father with a young daughter when I read these accounts, it makes you sick and it makes you think about what you do as a parent”, he said.
Simon Danczuk locked horns with Chris Worrall
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“Labour’s ambition is to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. When Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), he called for mandatory reporting so it’s illegal to turn a blind eye.
“We have had a wasted decade of inaction by the Tory Government. When there are fathers being arrested for trying to save their children, we cannot be ignoring the fact that the Tories wasted a decade.
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“What did Keir Starmer do? There has been some changes while he was DPP. He immediately admitted failures of that department. Unlike other institutions including the police where they had missing documents, he kind of named the officers that held some of these cases.
“You’ve had a huge review and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) changed things like victims’ rights to review where they didn’t prosecute. He put in place actual specialists actually dealing with these cases.
“The guidelines he’s put in were commended by the Tories, they said it was extraordinary. Labour is committed to implementing the last seven-year £100m inquiry, you say we don’t have one. Do you want to wait another seven years?”
Danczuk, who stood as a Reform candidate last year in Rochdale, said Starmer is actually guilty of a “very poor record” in his role as DPP, mentioning the Jimmy Saville case.
Whether asational inquiry should be held was discussed on GB New
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Worrall responded by assertively urging Danczuk to keep to the topic in question.
“The national inquiry is what we are calling for”, he said, to which the Labour activist said “we’ve had one”.
Danczuk said: “That was on historic abuse about Westminster. We’re talking about victims now.
“I tell you what Chris, why not apologise now on behalf of Labour for how Labour have behaved in relation to this?
“Labour has ignored this and are culpable in trying to brush it under the carpet? Why don’t you apologise on their behalf?”
Worrall was left furious by the remarks, branding them “disgusting”, adding: “don’t be giving me none of that.”
Danczuk this week revealed he was warned not to highlight the ethnicity of grooming gangs to protect the party’s electoral chances.
Simon Danczuk, who served as Rochdale MP from 2010 to 2017, claims he was “threatened” by Tony Lloyd, the former chairman of Labour’s parliamentary party.
Simon Danczuk says he was told not to report his concerns
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The warning came while Lloyd was campaigning to become Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner.
In a 2017 letter to Prof Alexis Jay, Danczuk wrote that Lloyd had attempted to “disassociate the grooming scandal from the Asian Muslim community” and privately told him these links should not be highlighted.
Danczuk alleges Lloyd later phoned and threatened to “bounce me from Rochdale to Westminster” if he repeated criticisms about police performance regarding grooming.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Danczuk echoed calls for an inquiry into grooming gangs.
“I do think there should be a national inquiry into the grooming gangs also with the ability to prosecute those who turned a blind eye, or stopped and discouraged investigation,” he said.
However, the former MP expressed reservations about Labour’s potential handling of such an investigation.
“My only fear is that if a Labour government set the remit for any such inquiry they would construct it in a way which provided few meaningful results,” Danczuk warned.
The comments follow revelations that another Labour MP, Jim Dobbin, had also warned Danczuk against linking the scandal to the Asian Muslim community.
