Wes Streeting in TV bust-up over Labour MP's grooming scandal slur

Wes Streeting has said Lucy Powell’s comments that appeared to describe a question about grooming gangs as a “dog whistle” were not interpreted as his Cabinet colleague had intended.

Asked if he and his Labour colleagues see the grooming gangs scandal as a dog-whistle issue or a “coded signal to racists”, the Health Minister said: “No and I don’t think that’s what Lucy intended to imply in a heated debate on Radio 4, and that’s why she’s apologised for what she said.

“I don’t think for a moment she would have meant or wanted to imply that raising these issues, talking about these issues, is dog whistle.”

“We all make mistakes” and the important thing is that “we own it”, Mr Streeting told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme.

Asked if Ms Powell’s job as Leader of the House of Commons was safe, he said: “I think she’s made a genuine mistake, she’s owned up to it she’s said sorry and we’ll move on.”

Ms Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, was speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions to Tim Montgomerie, the founder of ConservativeHome.

In the midst of a discussion about councils' diversity spending, Mr Montgomerie asked Ms Powell if she had watched the recent shocking Channel 4 documentary that followed five women who had been victims of sexual grooming in the UK.

Mr Montgomerie asked: “I don't know if you saw the documentary on Channel 4 about rape gangs.”

To which Ms Powell, the Lord President of the Council, replied: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do you? Let's get that dog whistle out, shall we, yeah?”

Mr Montgomerie responded: “There is a real issue where… There were so many people in local government, in the authorities, who, for good reason, were worried about upsetting community tensions, that those girls went undefended.”

Channel 4's film, Groomed: A National Scandal, delved into the stories of five women who had been targeted by rape gangs inside the UK.

The remarks by Ms Powell, who has been the Labour MP for Manchester Central since 2012, drew immediate ire from her political opponents.

Writing on X, Katie Lam, the Tory MP for Weald of Kent, said: “If the Leader of the House of Commons does not, in fact, think that industrialised child sexual torture is just a "dog whistle" and a ‘little trumpet’, she should take it back and say sorry.

“'If she does actually think that, she has no business being in Cabinet and should resign.'

In an apology Ms Powell, said: “In the heat of a discussion on AQ [Any Questions], I would like to clarify that I regard issues of child exploitation & grooming with the utmost seriousness.

“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 the truth, and deliver justice.”

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “Labour's Lucy Powell thinks it's a 'dog whistle' to demand arrests and accountability for the rape gangs. What a disgusting betrayal of the victims. They are part of the cover-up.”

A Reform UK spokesman said: “If yesterday's local election results weren't enough, Lucy Powell's abhorrent comments truly demonstrate how out of touch the Labour Party is.

“She does not take the mass rape of young girls by predominantly Pakistani men seriously. The mask has slipped. After these comments, Keir Starmer should consider if Lucy Powell is fit to serve.”

The Channel 4 documentary revealed that a report that identified more than 330 young women at risk from Asian grooming gangs was deemed 'toxic' and suppressed by the Home Office.

The 90-minute film reveals that the report into child exploitation in Rotherham in the early 2000s was part of research funded by Tony Blair's government.