There are antecedents for this. Think of Gordon Brown’s apparent capitulation to the rise of the BNP with his “British jobs for British workers” pledge, or even David Cameron’s decision to hold a Brexit referendum after previously dismissing Ukippers as “fruitcakes” and “closet racists”.
But this Wednesday, something felt different. A vibe shift, as they say.
At an unusually tense Prime Minister’s Questions, Kemi Badenoch (below) demanded another national inquiry into what she called the “decades-long rape gang scandal”.
Her arguments were presented as being reasonable: the previous national inquiry under Professor Alexis Jay was far from an exhaustive look into the issue. For instance, it mentioned Rotherham – one of the most prominent examples of the scandal – just once, said Badenoch.
Later in the day, the Conservatives attempted to derail Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill with the crude gimmick of a wrecking amendment featuring calls for a national inquiry.
The Tory arguments were put in more concise terms by her onetime leadership rival Robert Jenrick, who on Twitter/X said that the previous inquiry looked at only six towns when it is now known that abuse was much more widespread, affecting up to 50 towns and cities, he said.
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Local inquiries are limited in their powers to uncover “the truth” because they often cannot compel witnesses, said Jenrick, citing the example of Manchester.
Investigators there were so frustrated by the stubborn refusal of people to cooperate with their inquiry, they simply quit.
This goes some way to explaining the Labour mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham’s call for a second inquiry.
But then Starmer’s arguments against one also seem eminently reasonable. Getting victims to rehearse some of the most traumatic experiences of their lives is necessarily a lengthy and difficult process – hence also very expensive.
(Image: PA)
If the Tories are after justice for these victims, this would be delayed until 2031, he said.
So why all the sound and fury? Badenoch hinted at it when she said that her idea for a national inquiry would explore whether there was a “racial and cultural motivation to some of these crimes”.
The “grooming gangs” scandal has been separated out from other incidences of widespread child sexual abuse in Britain on racial lines.
What we’re talking about in this instance is the rape and sexual abuse of predominantly white girls – who often lived in care – by gangs of predominately Asian men.
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Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe made that point far more explicit when he demanded the Government suspend visas for Pakistanis coming to Britain over the issue.
It appears that proponents of a new national inquiry want it to specifically explore why Asian men preyed on white girls in towns and cities across England.
Quite why this must be considered in isolation has not yet been made clear by those pushing the argument.
Why stop there? Why not an inquiry into paedophilia among Catholic priests, Anglican priests, BBC presenters? Maybe we could have a public inquiry into why white men are disproportionately represented among the ranks of notorious serial killers?
Or what about a national inquiry into the attitudes of many white politicians and other figures of authority who turned a blind eye to child sexual exploitation?
Perhaps Starmer had it right when he said they were following “warped ideas” about community relations.
But maybe their supposed fear of being accused of racism was an all too convenient cover for people dodging their responsibilities because they simply did not care enough about the victims to trouble themselves.
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During PMQs, Badenoch rattled off a list of places where groups of men – every example given related to non-white men – had raped children.
Absent from her list were the paedophile rings found operating in Glasgow and Cornwall. The exclusion of the former was especially surprising, given it is one of the most depraved cases reported in recent times.
(Image: Police Scotland)
What was different in Glasgow and Cornwall? The perpetrators were all white.
Elon Musk’s interest in the affair should come as no surprise. Since his takeover of Twitter/X, users’ feeds have become full of far-right accounts claiming that black and Asian people are genetically predisposed to crime, especially sexual offences.
Over the right wing of British politics, he dangles the prospect of a history-making $100 million donation to Reform UK.
Should he make the donation, it could be game over for the Tories and Nigel Farage could be on his way into Downing Street, owned wholesale by the world’s most powerful and most dangerous man.
We may look back at this week as the beginning of a new and very dark chapter in British politics.