THREE big things happened in Parliament last week, and that was before the Spending Review and the American bombings in Iran; we had two very important votes on assisted dying and abortion.

But before that the Home Secretary announced the government was going to implement the recommendation from the Casey audit for a full inquiry into grooming gangs. Almost immediately the usual political knuckle-draggers jumped on the bandwagon to claim a u-turn.

Now most people that know me know that I’m pretty plain-speaking. Perhaps too much sometimes! I’m from Redruth – I don’t know any different. So, let me set the record straight: we did NOT vote against a national grooming gang enquiry in January. Anyone that suggests otherwise is unaware of House of Commons procedures or is trying to cynically manipulate those that don’t understand Parliamentary procedure for their own political ends.

The reason that we voted against this Conservative political stunt, supported by Reform, was because it was what’s called a ‘wrecking amendment’ – it was an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and it would have killed off the entire Bill if it had passed. This Bill is all about safeguarding children. It puts into law one of the key recommendations of the Jay Report – to give children outside school a named identifier.

Labour have been fully committed to implementing all of the recommendations of the Jay Report, unlike the Conservatives or Reform. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill also makes mandatory stronger safeguards for children in care, offers greater support for care leavers, enshrines in law rights of kinship carers, reduces the cost of school uniforms, regulates multi academy trusts and commits primary schools to offer free breakfast clubs. But no matter about all that, the Conservatives and Reform wanted to risk killing all that off to score a cheap political point.

The Labour government has already asked Baroness Casey to carry out a full assessment. Her initial advice was that a full public inquiry was not necessary. Local inquiries, such as that at Telford, were the best approach for the grooming gangs, rather than a national inquiry. However, having completed her audit, Baroness Casey’s advice has now changed and she is in favour of a public inquiry.

Because this Labour government will never ever shy away from the tough decisions that we have to take in the national interest, Yvette Cooper stood at the despatch box and made the statement. I was behind her and I have to say I am starting to question whether the Conservatives in Westminster (and I make this distinction as I know and like some of our local Conservatives in Cornwall) and Reform really have the best interests of the child victims of the most heinous crimes at heart. It was a sad reflection on how far a once great party had fallen in trying to ape Reform populists.

What a contrast with the end of the week when Parliamentarians debated assisted dying in a civil and sympathetic manner. Hey ho, that’s Westminster, I guess.