Labour minister left squirming in tense GMB grilling as | UK News

Labour minister Emma Reynolds was left squirming in an awkward Good Morning Britain confrontation with hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley. The financial secretary to the treasury appeared on the ITV show via video hyperlink from Westminster to talk about the upcoming investigation into grooming gangs – but repeatedly stated she “couldn’t comment”.

After one girl – a sufferer of grooming as a youngster – was convicted of being in a gang herself while her alleged rapists bought off scot-free, Susanna and Richard had been eager to get Reynolds’ stance on the case. She stated: “Yes we want to ensure that the individual you just mentioned, the man in the grooming gang in this instance, is brought to justice.

“We want to ensure that all of the perpetrators who have been responsible for grooming young girls in different parts of the country are brought to justice and that we get that justice for victims and I’m really sorry to hear about this horrific case, of which, as you said, there are many, many others.”

Richard fired back: “Well that would imply, then, that you agree with the general principle. I appreciate you can’t give an absolute guarantee, but that conviction should be overturned, shouldn’t it?”

Reynolds would only say: “I can’t comment on that specific case, you’ll forgive me. These are legal matters, I’m a treasury minister, I can’t, I don’t have the full details of that case and investigation-“

Susanna cut her off to clarify: “I’m sorry, my question was do you think that the inquiry will cover cases of that? Where the children have been reporting sexual abuse and exploitation but then have faced charges and convictions and indeed served time themselves. Do you think that the remit of the inquiry will cover that?”

“Well the home secretary will set out full details of the inquiry and the government’s response to Baroness Casey’s review later this afternoon, so I can’t give you specific details around that,” Reynolds insisted. “But what I do want to reassure you and your listeners of is that we can both take forward the recommendations on the table as we already are, as well as taking forward the inquiry that Louise Casey has recommended, which is different to the one that took place before because it is about coordinating those local inquiries that are getting started, and also gathering evidence.”

She then tried to steer the argument in direction of the earlier Conservative authorities, arguing: “We’ve already started action as a government. We’ve done more in the time we’ve been in power than you saw Conservatives do in the time since the Jay Report-“

Susanna interrupted to inform her: “We don’t want to make this a political row.”

“Sure, I understand that,” Reynolds replied. “We need to put the victims front and centre of this. You’re absolutely right in the way you’ve covered this issue on your programme.”