UK politics latest: Majority of Labour voters oppose Starmer on grooming gangs inquiry, poll finds
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has also suggested he favours a ‘limited national inquiry’
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Your support makes all the difference.Two thirds of Labour voters are at odds with Sir Keir Starmer and would support a new public inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, new YouGov polling suggests.
The prime minister has rejected calls from Elon Musk for a new inquiry after condemning the billionaire’s onslaught of social media attacks as “lies and misinformation”, as allies of the world’s richest man claimed he was seeking a way to remove Sir Keir from power prior to the next general election.
As the row throws the scandal into the spotlight, Sir Keir’s party itself appears split over whether to hold a new inquiry. While Sir Keir has suggested action is only needed to implement the recommendations of previous inquiries, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has said he favours “a limited national inquiry”.
And new polling by YouGov suggests that 76 per cent of the British public – including 65 per cent of Labour voters – would support a new inquiry, compared with just 13 per cent who would oppose a new national investigation.
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Nigel Farage and Elon Musk have been linked since Donald Trump secured his second term as US president, with Mr Musk becoming a close ally on the campaign trail.
Statements from the three would indicate that their politics are all in alignment, but the reality has been far less simple.
Here’s everything you need to know about Elon Musk’s relationship with Nigel Farage:
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No 10 discusses postponement to council elections
Downing Street has said the government will work “collaboratively” with councils that have asked to postpone this year’s local elections, but will not “mandate” postponement.
Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said: “We have set out before that any postponed elections will only be considered at the request of the local authorities involved, so this will not be mandated by the government.
“Instead we will work collaboratively with them to ensure any postponement is aligned to ensuring that it fits with reorganisation and devolution in the most ambitious timeframe.”
Councils have until Friday to request a postponement, and the spokesperson said the government would “provide certainty to those areas as soon as possible”.
Child sexual abuse inquiry chair to face questions from MPs
The chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will face questions from the Commons Home Affairs Committee following calls for a further inquiry into the issue.
Professor Alexis Jay will appear before the committee on 21 January alongside the inquiry’s secretary, John O’Brien. Questions are expected to focus on how far Prof Jay’s recommendations have been implemented and how institutions have responded to her findings.
Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that the results of comprehensive public inquiries set up by government are acted upon. For too long, children were failed by those who should have been protecting them.
“We are holding this session to understand how the government and the different institutions within the remit of the inquiry have responded to its findings. We want to see if there has been progress in the wide-ranging change needed to implement a comprehensive child safety framework and what more needs to be done.”
What has Andy Burnham said on a new grooming gangs inquiry?
Breaking ranks with Sir Keir Starmer, the veteran Labour mayor Andy Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday: “I did hear last night coming out of that debate, ministers saying they are open to discussing issues now with survivors.
“I will add my voice into this and say I do think there is the case for a limited national inquiry that draws on reviews like the one that I commissioned, and the one we have seen in Rotherham, the one we have seen in Telford, to draw out some of these national issues and compel people to give evidence who then may have charges to answer and be held to account.”
Three quarters of British public support new grooming gangs inquiry, poll suggests
More than three quarters of the British public would support a new inquiry into grooming gangs, new polling by YouGov suggests.
Putting them at odds with Sir Keir Starmer’s rejection of calls by billionaire Elon Musk for a new public inquiry into the scandal, with the government instead favouring actioning the recommendations of a previous inquiry, the survey of more than 2,500 people found 76 per cent supported a new inquiry.
Conversely, just 13 per cent would oppose a further public inquiry, according to YouGov’s polling, which was carried out over the past two days.
The proportion of Labour voters in favour of a new inquiry was also high, with 65 per cent voicing support and just 22 per cent opposing a new review.
Reform MP Rupert Lowe has described being a parliamentarian as “the most expensive job I have ever had” as emerged that he, Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson had declared thousands of pounds earned from posting on X.
The businessman declared on December 11 that he had received £1,384.81 from the company. It comes after he registered a £3,259.18 payment from X Corp on December 3, meaning he has received over £4,600 from the corporation in total.
The Great Yarmouth MP said he donates his entire MP salary to local charities and said: “This is the most expensive job I have ever had – if I was in this to ‘make money’, I am going about it an incredibly stupid way.”
Athena Stavrou and Millie Cooke have more details:
Reform MPs including Nigel Farage paid thousands by Elon Musk’s X for posting on site
The scheme has been branded an ‘unholy alliance’ between the right-wing and billionaire Musk
Further public spending cuts could damage economy, expert warns
Experts have warned against new cuts to public services, as the rising cost of UK government borrowing raises concerns that chancellor Rachel Reeves will struggle to meet her fiscal rules.
George Dibb, of the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank, told The Guardian: “Making further cuts to public services or departmental budgets is not necessarily the ‘easy choice’, nor will it fix the underlying problem.
“There’s little fat to be cut after years of austerity, and imposing more cuts at this stage could be damaging, to people’s lives and also to the economy.”
And Cara Pacitti, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, told the outlet: “Announcing further departmental cuts would be suboptimal.
“Reeves should not allow short-term volatility in the markets to force her into really significant spending cuts which will have a genuine impact on concrete items of long-term spending.”
Musk examining how to try and replace Farage as Reform leader, report claims
Elon Musk has been examining possible candidates to replace Nigel Farage as leader of Reform UK, including MP Rupert Lowe, and has looked into which potential mechanisms there are to replace him, the Financial Times reports, citing people briefed on his thinking.
The outlet also cited sources as claiming that the billionaire has been looking at ways to try to force Sir Keir Starmer out of Downing Street prior to the next general election.
Bank of England governor joining chancellor’s delegation to China
Rachel Reeves’s trip is expected to revive the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue – annual bilateral talks suspended since 2019 due to the Covid pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years, amid a series of spying allegations and China’s crackdown on liberties in Hong Kong.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and the Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi are also in the chancellor’s delegation, according to the Treasury.
Representatives from some of Britain’s biggest financial services firms will join the trip. Officials did not provide details, but media reports have said senior executives from HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were included.
Culture secretary says UK ‘should not roll out red carpet’ at Afghanistan cricket match
England’s forthcoming cricket match against Afghanistan should go ahead amid calls for a boycott over the Taliban’s treatment of women, the Culture Secretary has said.
“I do think it should go ahead,” Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast, adding: “I’m instinctively very cautious about boycotts in sports, partly because I think they’re counterproductive.
“I think they deny sports fans the opportunity that they love, and they can also very much penalise the athletes and the sports people who work very, very hard to reach the top of their game and then they’re denied the opportunities to compete.
“They are not the people that we want to penalise for the appalling actions of the Taliban against women and girls.”
However, she insisted the UK should not be “rolling out the red carpet” at the event, adding: “When China hosted the Winter Olympics, I was very vocal, many of us were very vocal about making sure that we didn’t send dignitaries to that event, that we didn’t give them the PR coup that they were looking for when they were forcibly incarcerating the Uighur in Xinjiang.”
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