MPs Shout 'Shame!' After Reform UK Member Alleges Labour Minister Covered Up Grooming Gang Abuses

The oak-panelled chamber of Parliament erupted into chaos Monday when Reform UK's Lee Anderson hurled accusations that left fellow MPs gasping. His target? Labour Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, whom he directly accused of being complicit in concealing organised child exploitation cases that have haunted northern English towns for decades.

Shouts of 'Shame!' ricocheted across the chamber. MPs half-rose from green leather benches, faces contorted in outrage, while others sat frozen in disbelief. The Speaker struggled to restore order as the chamber dissolved into the kind of uproar that parliamentary cameras rarely capture.

Despite frequent calls for a full national probe, only five local inquiries have been pledged. Anderson is not the lone voice raising the alarm regarding government's inaction, but Conservative MP Kemi Badenoch also echoed similar sentiments.

Anderson's 'Divisive' Remarks Triggers commotion

Frustrated MPs affirmed that the government was not doing enough to hold grooming gangs accountable. On Monday, Badenoch accused the Labour government of a cover-up and questioned whether Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is 'dragging his heels' on promised local inquiries into the Rotherham child trafficking cases.

In response, Starmer maintained that he is delivering 'truth and justice' for victims of child sexual abuse. Likewise, Phillips cryptically admitted that she knows 'exactly the issue of the cover-up' and stated, 'wherever they tell me there are victims that need help, that is where I will go.'

Unconvinced Anderson took to X (formerly Twitter), and posted a video in which he is addressing Parliament saying: 'Thousands of young white British working class girls have been raped, tortured and abused by Pakistani grooming gangs, and yet this minister here refuses to support a full national public enquiry,'

Pointing to Phillips, he asked, 'Is she part of the cover-up?'

Amidst din, Anderson sat down as noises of disdain and disapproval filled the chamber, with some even calling out 'shame!'

Phillips later insisted that her career has been about helping victims, and there is 'no way' she'd be part of a cover-up.

The Reform UK minister is undeterred, however, Anderson wrote on X, 'Sorry Minister but the shame is with you and your weak government.'

Behind the political theatre lies genuine tragedy – stories so horrific they seem almost unbelievable.

Rampant Physical And Sexual Exploitation: The Rotherham Case

The systematic abuse in Rotherham first hit headlines in 2010 when The Times published an exposé that initially identified victims and the child trafficking ring was operated by men from Pakistan origin.

Though 47 girls were initially identified, it is estimated that the ring scarred 1,400 minors between 1997 and 2013 and the crimes were committed in cities, including Bristol, Banbury, Oldham, Oxford, Telford, Huddersfield, and Halifax. By January 2024, 42 men were convicted for being part of the ring, with their combined sentences of 432 years behind bars.

The Times' article was, sadly, unsurprising to some who had previously tried to raise the alarm on the issue. In 2002, then-Labour MP Ann Cryer raised alarms about sexual exploitation in Keighley, but her concerns were largely dismissed.

In her 2014 inquiry into the case, Professor Alexis Jay revealed some of the 'appaling' details of the abuse the girls endured: 'They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated,' Jay wrote.

She explained that victims were 'doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened [that] they would be next if they told anyone.'

Though grooming gangs have become a well-known phenomenon, they frequently operate undetected, playing the long con to trap victims through false affection and manipulation.

'Grooming Gangs': How They Operate

The term 'grooming gangs' is often used in reference to networks of men, predominantly of British-Pakistani descent, that have been accused of widespread and systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable young girls across England. These networks operate by having men pretend to be cab or takeaway drivers and slowly build trust and rapport with girls between the ages of 11 and 16. This grooming took takes place in broad daylight, going unnoticed.

Victims— often white and from troubled homes— were slowly coerced into consuming alcohol and drugs and partaking in sexual acts, sometimes involving multiple men at the same time. These girls were often physically battered, trafficked and even murdered.

One of the victims of was Lucy Lowe, a 16-year-old from Telford who was killed alongside her mother and 17-year-old sister when Cabbie Azhar Ali Mehmood burnt down their home in 2000. Mehmood had sexually abused Lucy for three years, with the teen carrying a second pregnancy by him at the time of her death.

Survivors describe a world where they existed in plain sight yet remained invisible – sitting in late-night takeaways, being picked up by middle-aged men outside school gates, arriving at sexual health clinics with suspicious injuries – while authorities looked the other way.

Monday's clash represents more than just political mud-slinging. It crystallizes growing public frustration that, despite multiple reports and inquiries, nobody in authority has truly been held accountable for catastrophic failures.

The bedlam in Parliament reflects shortcomings in how Britain addresses the exploitation of its most vulnerable citizens. Anderson and Badenoch's frustrations illustrate a critical need for a more robust protection for young girls. Additionally, their reactions reflect a nationwide desire for more efficient and harsher response to cases of child sexual abuse.