Downing Street has thrown its support behind embattled Labour frontbencher Lucy Powell, despite furious calls for her resignation after she appeared to belittle the nationwide scandal of grooming gangs as a “dog whistle” issue.
Powell, now Leader of the House of Commons under Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, made the disgraceful remark during a heated exchange on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions on Friday night.
When commentator Tim Montgomerie brought up a harrowing Channel 4 documentary about five young girls sexually abused by grooming gangs, Powell dismissed it with: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let’s get that dog whistle out.”
The flippant comment sparked immediate backlash, with Conservatives and campaigners up and down the country slamming Labour’s tone-deaf approach to one of Britain’s darkest scandals.
The outcry forced Powell into a grovelling apology over the weekend. “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,” she said. “I’m sorry if this was unclear. I was challenging the political point scoring around it, not the issue itself. As a constituency MP, I’ve dealt with horrendous cases. This government is acting to get to the truth and deliver justice.”
But many weren’t buying it.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting tried to defend Powell on Sky News, insisting: “She’s made a genuine mistake. She’s owned up to it, she’s said sorry and we’ll move on.” Conveniently forgiving when it’s a Labour minister under fire—yet the same party screams for resignations whenever a Conservative slips up.
Reform UK was also having none of it, demanding Starmer consider whether Powell was fit to hold high office. Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp went further: “This shocking outburst from a Labour cabinet minister belittles the thousands of girls and women who were raped by grooming gangs over decades,” he said. “We have consistently called for a national inquiry 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.
“Anyone who has seen the shocking Channel 4 documentary will know that it is clearer than ever that this is not a ‘dog whistle’. To dismiss thousands of victims who were raped and the cover-up that followed is sickening. She should resign.”
And he’s not wrong. The Channel 4 exposé has reignited national fury over the years of systemic failures by police and social services who turned a blind eye to the abuse—often out of fear of being branded racist.
But while victims and campaigners plead for a full independent inquiry, Labour continues to drag its feet. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had the gall to stand up in Parliament and claim there had already been an inquiry and that Labour was “delivering truth and justice for victims.” That’s flatly untrue. There has been no full national inquiry—just piecemeal reports, conveniently avoiding the uncomfortable truths Labour clearly doesn’t want to face.
This isn’t the first time Labour has shown a shocking lack of seriousness on this issue. And judging by the party’s limp response to Powell’s disgraceful remarks, it sadly won’t be the last.
How many more victims need to come forward before Labour finally stops treating grooming gangs as an inconvenient political hot potato and starts taking real action?
