{"id":296981,"date":"2025-05-03T22:28:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/03\/conservatives-call-for-labours-lucy-powell-to-resign-over-grooming-gang-remarks\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:28:46","slug":"conservatives-call-for-labours-lucy-powell-to-resign-over-grooming-gang-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/03\/conservatives-call-for-labours-lucy-powell-to-resign-over-grooming-gang-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives call for Labour’s Lucy Powell to resign over grooming gang remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conservatives<\/div>\n
\n

The Conservatives are calling for Lucy Powell to resign after the Labour MP’s exchange with a commentator about grooming gangs.<\/p>\n

The comment was made by Ms Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, after Conservative political commentator Tim Montgomerie started to ask a question on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if you saw the documentary on Channel 4 about rape gangs,” he started, in relation to the recent programme Groomed: A National Scandal, which centred around five girls who were sexually abused by rape gangs.<\/p>\n

Ms Powell, who is MP for Manchester Central, responded: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let’s get that dog whistle out.”<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer and the government have been under sustained pressure from political opponents over the handling of historical sex abuse cases in the UK.<\/p>\n

ConservativeHome founder Mr Montgomerie, who will be appearing on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips<\/strong><\/a>, continued: “There is a real issue where\u2026 There were so many people in local government, in the authorities, who, for good reason, were worried about upsetting community tensions, that those girls went undefended.”<\/p>\n

The conversation moved on, but politicians criticised Ms Powell’s comment, with some calling for her to resign.<\/p>\n

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said in a statement: “This shocking outburst from a Labour cabinet minister belittles the thousands of girls and women who were raped by grooming gangs over decades.<\/p>\n

“We have consistently called for a national enquiry in parliament, which has been blocked by Labour ministers who don’t seem to know or care about the disgusting crimes which have been perpetrated.<\/p>\n

“Anyone who has seen the shocking Channel 4 documentary will know that it is clearer than ever that this is not a ‘dog whistle’.<\/p>\n

“To dismiss thousands of victims who were raped and the cover up that followed is sickening. She should resign.”<\/p>\n

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Labour’s Lucy Powell thinks it’s a ‘dog whistle’ to demand arrests and accountability for the rape gangs. What a disgusting betrayal of the victims. They are part of the cover-up.”<\/p>\n

Ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe, now an independent, shared a letter he wrote to Ms Powell demanding she apologise, calling her comments “deeply, deeply offensive”.<\/p>\n

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On X on Saturday night, Ms Powell said: “In the heat of a discussion on AQ, I would like to clarify that I regard issues of child exploitation and grooming with the utmost seriousness. I’m sorry if this was unclear.<\/p>\n

“I was challenging the political point scoring around it, not the issue itself. As a constituency MP I’ve dealt with horrendous cases. This Gvt is acting to get to the truth, and deliver justice.”<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Grooming gangs scandal timeline<\/strong><\/a>
PM says government will fund further local grooming gangs inquiries if ‘needed’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sky News has contacted the office for the Leader of the House of Commons for comment.<\/p>\n

The long-running row over grooming cases has continued after Labour promised five local inquiries into grooming gangs in January<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tech billionaire Elon Musk had accused Sir Keir of being “complicit”<\/a><\/strong> in the failure of authorities to protect victims and prosecute abusers while the PM was director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013.<\/p>\n

The prime minister has repeatedly defended his record, saying it shows he tackled the issue head-on.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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The Conservatives are calling for Lucy Powell to resign after the Labour MP’s exchange with a commentator about grooming gangs. The comment was made by Ms Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, after Conservative political commentator Tim Montgomerie started to ask a question on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions. “I don’t know if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/05\/1920x1080\/skynews-lucy-powell-house-of-commons_6905593.jpg?20250503224316","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[875,15575,6268,84745,1980,58262,64476,495,10510],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296983,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296981\/revisions\/296983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}