CABINET minister Lucy Powell is facing calls to resign after describing a powerful documentary into the grooming gangs scandal as “dog whistle”.
She was challenged on the BBC’s Any Questions programme about whether she had seen the Channel 4 probe into the widespread sex abuse of girls.
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But dismissing the question she said: “Oh we want to blow that little trumpet do we. Let’s get that little dog whistle out.”
Senior Tories hit out at her remarks.
Chris Philp Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This shocking outburst from a Labour Cabinet Minister belittles the thousands of girls and women who were raped by grooming gangs over decades.
“We have consistently called for a national enquiry in Parliament, which has been blocked by Labour Ministers who don’t seem to know or care about the disgusting crimes which have been perpetrated.
“Anyone who has seen the shocking channel 4 documentary will know that it is clearer than ever that this is not a ‘dog whistle’.
“To dismiss thousands of victims who were raped and the cover up that followed is sickening.
“She should resign.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick 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.”
Tory MP Katie Lam tweeted: “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.”
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Ms Powell scrambled to “clarify” her remarks.
She tweeted: “I would like to clarify that I regard issues of child exploitation and 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.”
But it piles pressure on No10 over the grooming gang scandal.
Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire for refusing to order a new national inquiry into the scandal.