Natalie Fleet delivered a powerful message to Kemi Badenoch as she said ‘I do not know how she dare’ after the Tory leader claimed victory when a national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal was announced
Natalie Fleet criticises Kemi Badenoch’s history on grooming gangs
A Labour MP who was groomed as a teenager has launched a powerful attack on Kemi Badenoch’s “cheap point scoring” as she described her ordeal.
Natalie Fleet said “I do not know how she dare,” after the Tory leader claimed victory when a national inquiry was announced into the grooming gangs scandal. The MP for Bolsover, who has previously spoken about being raped by an older man when she was 15, said “thank God” the UK finally has a Government prepared to tackle violence against women and girls.
She said that while the Tories were in power, Parliament “spoke about football more than they spoke about rape” and was appalled at Ms Badenoch’s record. Ms Fleet accused the Conservative leader of having “no idea” about the impact on victims like her.
It comes after Ms Badenoch brazenly described Labour’s Jess Phillips as “the worst safeguarding minister ever” – a charge Ms Fleet rubbished. She told GB News: “I’m angry.
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“I’m really, really angry and that’s why I am here today. So as somebody who has been groomed, I didn’t think that I should ever be in Parliament. The reason I am in Parliament is because of people like Jess Phillips.
“Jess has not only told me that I am not responsible for my experience, she said Parliament would benefit people like me being in it. And I look at Keir and I think that we’ve got people that take it really seriously.”
This week the Government announced it would back a full national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal after a review by Baroness Louise Casey highlighted shocking failures. In response, Ms Badenoch sent out a letter to Tory members saying “we won”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced hundreds of cases that were dropped by police will be re-opened, and vows paedophile gangs “will have nowhere to hide”. The Government has committed to acting on all the recommendations from Lady Casey’s report.
Comparing the new Government with its predecessor Ms Fleet stated: “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.”
And she added: “You’ve got a leader of the opposition that comes out and says to people like me, ‘we won’ because she’s done some cheap point scoring in the chamber or on the media round.
“She has no idea. I do not know how she dare.” In an interview with GB News, Ms Badenoch claimed the Tories had taken the grooming gang scandal seriously when in power.
“I spoke about this issue during the leadership contest,” she insisted.”I stood on a stage and I made the point about this being something that I was going to campaign on long before all of the furore that we saw this year.”
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