The British parliament has voted down an effort, spearheaded by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, to launch a new national inquiry into a series of child sex abuse incidents perpetrated in British towns by gangs of predominantly Pakistani men between 2004 and 2011. 

The decade-old grooming gang scandal regained national attention after billionaire businessman Elon Musk recently began posting about the issue on his social media platform, X, accusing Prime Minister Starmer, and other Labour party members, of allowing “rape gangs” to “exploit young girls without facing justice.”

The uproar reignited a series of debates in the United Kingdom surrounding race and immigration. Although the government previously launched a probe into the sex abuse cases, skeptics argue that the inquiry failed to get at the root cause of the gang violence. They suggest that heightened cultural concerns regarding racism prevented the abuse scandal, which involved predominantly Asian abusers and young white victims, from being properly investigated.

The amendment, which was attached to a bill seeking to impose additional protections for children’s schooling called the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, lost 364 to 111. Given the size of the Labour party’s majority, it was unlikely to pass from the get-go. 

Conservatives are responding angrily to the result and have blamed Mr. Starmer for using his supermajority to block the effort. The shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philip, called the move by Mr. Starmer “disgusting” and denounced the Labour MPs for putting their party “ahead of getting to the truth and turned a blind eye to justice for the victims.” 

Wednesday’s vote follows a fierce debate earlier in the day during the Prime Minister’s Questions between Mr. Starmer and Ms. Badenoch.  

Mr. Starmer opened the discussion by repeating his view that a new inquiry would only delay the government from acting “on what we already know.” Ms. Badenoch, however, rebuffed the notion that the previous inquiries adequately addressed the scandal, saying that “no-one has joined the dots or has the total picture… and it is almost certainly still going on.” She contends that the government should be able to launch an inquiry and “have actions, take on more,” at the same time. 

Mr. Starmer accused Ms. Badenoch of “bandwagon jumping” on the issue after it gained the attention of Mr. Musk, alleging that “not once in eight years” has she brought up the rape gang scandal. He says that while Conservatives have “been tweeting and talking, we’ve been acting.” 

Critics, including Mr. Musk, suggest that Mr. Starmer is opposed to launching a national inquiry because it would swivel eyes to his time as director of public prosecutions during the years when the scandal was first unfolding. The prime minister has, however, defended his record.