Robert Jenrick has said it was “absolutely disgusting” for the prime minister to accuse certain politicians of “amplifying” far-right talking points over the grooming gangs scandal.
Keir Starmer issued the remark on Monday as part of a planned statement responding to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s increasingly aggressive attacks on his government.
Commenting after delivering a speech on NHS waiting lists, Starmer was asked by Sky News’ Beth Rigby if he was angry about Musk’s denunciation of Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister.
Last week, Musk said that Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into historic child sexual exploitation in Oldham and called her a “rape genocide apologist”.
Starmer insisted that “a line has been crossed”.
He said: “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have. But that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies, not on those who are so desperate for attention that they are prepared to debase themselves and their country.”
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He also condemned certain politicians for “jumping on the bandwagon” to maximise attention.
“What I won’t tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention, when those politicians sat in government for fourteen long years, tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about it — now so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far right is saying”, Starmer said.
Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has now claimed that the prime minister’s bandwagon remark was a “most outrageous smear”.
He told GB News: “Millions of people across our country want to see justice for the victims. What we are talking about here is thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of vulnerable young girls who were tortured and raped in the most horrific, evil manner in towns and cities the length and breadth of our country.
“And to hear the PM smearing those of us who want to see the truth emerge I thought was absolutely disgusting.
“More than just that, this was the same attitude that got us into this mess in the first place, it is because people like Keir Starmer have said you should turn a blind eye for fear of political correctness that we have seen this happen time and again, decade after decade. It has to end.”
The former immigration minister was criticised last week for his claim that the grooming gangs scandal “started with the onset of mass migration”.
Jenrick posted to X on 4 January: “Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here.”
Asked if he stood by the comments, he told GB News: “Yes, absolutely. We have seen millions of people enter the UK in recent years and some of them have backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women.
“We are talking here about thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of vulnerable young girls being tortured and raped.
“I will not disguise or sanitise my language simply to ensure that some people are not offended.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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