Angela Rayner rebuffed Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp’s call for an apology for the PM hitting out at far-right ‘poison’ earlier this year
Watch live: Angela Rayner takes PMQs in the House of Commons
Angela Rayner has slapped down one of Kemi Badenoch’s key lieutenants after he demanded a PMQs apology for the PM’s far-right “poison” claim.
The Deputy Prime Minister, stepping in for Keir Starmer, said the Tories did “absolutely nothing” while in power to tackle grooming gangs. The remark came after Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called on her to say sorry after the PM hit out at “far-right” activists in January – claiming it was a “smear”.
Ms Rayner shot back: “The Prime Minister made those comments specifically about Tory ministers who sat for years in the Government and did absolutely nothing.”
Ms Rayner said: “The Prime Minister did not just raise issues, but acted on them. He brought the first prosecutions against grooming gangs and called for action to address ethnicity issues in 2012.”
It comes as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch comes under fire over her response to the grooming gang scandal. Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who was groomed as a teenager, voiced her fury at “political point scoring” by the Conservative chief after the Government announced a full national inquiry.
She accused Ms Badenoch of failing to act when she had the chance. And Ms Fleet voiced her fury after the Tory leader sent an email to Conservative members saying “we won” when the inquiry was announced.
Comparing the new Government with its predecessor, Ms Fleet told GB News: “This is a Government that is absolutely committed to halving violence against women and girls. And we’ve got a leader of the opposition that for point scoring reasons dares to send an email out to Conservative members saying that they have won.
“How has anybody won? And it’s absolutely abhorrent situation that we are in.” She continued: “As a teenage girl I was told, like many girls up and down the country, whether in Bradford, whether in Rotherham, ‘This is your fault, this is your doing and this is going to impact you for the rest of your life’.
“‘You’ve let yourself down and let your family down’. And if, like me, you have children, you’ve let them down too. When Kemi Badenoch was minister for women and equalities she never met one grooming victim.
“She didn’t speak about it in Parliament. Last Parliament spoke about football more often than we spoke about rape.
“We now thank God have a Government that is treating violence against women and girls as the national emergency it is.”