News Round-Up

• “Labour votes down Tory demand for national inquiry into grooming gangs” – Labour MPs have rejected a Tory call for a new national inquiry into rape gangs, with 364 votes against and 111 in favour, according to the Mail. Not a single Labour or Lib Dem MP voted for it.
• “Labour accused of ‘cowardice’ after blocking national grooming inquiry” – The Conservatives have accused Labour of an “act of cowardice” after MPs rejected a Tory amendment calling for a national inquiry into rape gangs, reports the Standard.
• “The U.K. grooming gang scandal is a Galileo moment” – In TCW, John McGuirk calls the rape gang scandal a Galileo moment: an ugly truth silenced to protect the liberal myth of multicultural harmony.
• “Keir Starmer softens approach on grooming inquiry after bid to block bill” – Keir Starmer has softened his opposition to a public inquiry into Britain’s rape scandal as he admitted there was a difference of opinion among victims over whether it would be beneficial, reports the Times.
• “Labour’s grooming gang deflections will lay the ground for their own destruction” – The strange refusal to change their decision on a national inquiry is emboldening those with the most uncharitable views of the Government, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Ms. Phillips was gurning like a solipsistic goon” – In the Mail, Quentin Letts notes that while Kemi Badenoch tackled the “rape gangs scandal” with serious questions, Jess Phillips’ gurning antics made her look more like a “solipsistic goon” than a senior minister.
• “‘Jess Phillips confirmed that she has yet to speak to a single victim about this scandal’” – On GB News, Charlie Peters highlights the outrage over Jess Phillips’ refusal to allow an independent investigation into rape gangs in Oldham, despite never meeting with survivors.
• “Labour’s Islamophobia definition ‘forbids discussion of Asian grooming gangs’, says Badenoch” – Kemi Badenoch has called on Keir Starmer to drop Labour’s Islamophobia definition, which bars discussion of rape gangs, reports the Telegraph.
• “What the Left says about the grooming gangs – and what it really means” – In the Telegraph, Michael Deacon offers a handy guide to what the Left says about grooming gangs – and what it really means…
• “‘Britain has an institutional addiction to cover-ups’: the scandal of the Paedophile Information Exchange” – In the Telegraph, Chris Harvey previews a new Radio 4 series that investigates former members of a group who campaigned for adult-child sexual relationships to be legalised.
• “Starmer’s Britain is about to become an international pariah” – Labour appears blind to the scale of the global Right-wing vibes shift, and the fury of the Trump administration, says Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “Inside Musk’s obsession with race issues in the U.K.” – In the Telegraph, Iain Hollingshead looks at what drove the world’s richest man to wade into Britain’s rape gangs scandal.
• “Britain offers Mauritius £9 billion in renegotiated Chagos Islands deal” – Britain is offering to pay Mauritius £9 billion over 99 years as part of a renegotiated deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, according to the Times.
• “Foreign criminals go on crime sprees after avoiding deportation” – Hundreds of foreign criminals freed from jail in the past four years have committed multiple offences after avoiding deportation under the ECHR, reports the Telegraph.
• “Bibby Stockholm asylum seeker wears £185 Nike trainers to court” – An asylum seeker who was living on the Bibby Stockholm barge when he violently assaulted a fellow immigrant last summer has appeared in court wearing a pair of trainers worth £185, says the Mail.
• “Private school to slash new bursaries after Labour VAT raid” – The headmaster of one of the largest private schools in the country has warned that Labour’s tax raid will stop the funding of scholarships for poorer students, reports the Telegraph.
• “Boarding school pupils to be taxed more than luxury hotel guests” – Pupils will be taxed more to sleep at their boarding school than guests at luxury hotels under Labour’s private school VAT raid, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour are about to wreck our schools” – Education reform was one of the rare, undoubted successes of the last Tory government, but the Schools Bill will undo all that good work, writes Suella Braverman in the Telegraph.
• “The voice of ‘pushy middle-class parents’? Nope, the voice of unions and socialism” – Nobody should believe a word of the Education Secretary’s promise to represent the interests of ambitious families in state schools, writes Isabel Paterson on her Substack.
• “Treasury forced to intervene in market turmoil” – The Treasury has been forced to intervene to stabilise financial markets amid growing concern over the impact of Rachel Reeves’ Budget and a surge in borrowing costs, reports GB News.
• “Labour considers giving retired miners another £2.3 billion” – Labour is planning to toss another £2.3 billion at retired miners, on top of the £1.5 billion they’ve already handed them, according to the Telegraph.
• “Thousands of civil servants to strike ‘indefinitely’ over back-to-office demand” – Thousands of civil servants are to strike “indefinitely” from this month following an order to return to the office for three days a week, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer campaigners were members of Tulip Siddiq’s dictator aunt’s party” – Members of the political party led by Tulip Siddiq’s ousted dictator aunt campaigned for Keir Starmer, reveals the Telegraph.
• “BBC sacked me over anti-Starmer song, claims writer” – The creator of an anti-Keir Starmer charity single has been stripped of his job as a BBC newsreader after revealing his identity, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ad showing Islamic preacher burning dollars banned in blow for Khan’s TfL” – Adverts showing an Islamic preacher burning U.S. dollar and euro banknotes have been banned from tubes and buses, overruling a decision by Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London to allow them, says GB News.
• “Wall Street billionaire ousted over Epstein links in talks to back Telegraph takeover” – A Wall Street billionaire who was brought down by his relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has become the latest wealthy figure to be linked with a takeover of the Telegraph, reports the FT.
• “Britain scrambles to guard against blackouts as temperatures plummet” – As temperatures tumble, the electricity grid operator is scrambling to bolster Britain’s power supplies to guard against blackouts, says the Telegraph.
• “Climate change denial is an oxymoron” – On his blog, journalist Neil Winton slams the politicisation of climate change, arguing that the real debate isn’t whether it’s happening, but why.
• “Net Zero tsar admits she struggled to use electric car” – The Government’s Net Zero tsar has revealed she once forgot how to use her own electric car – as she admitted going green meant getting used to new technologies, reports the Telegraph.
• “Lucy Letby deserves a retrial, senior Tory tells Parliament” – Lucy Letby should face a retrial, David Davis has told Parliament, claiming that the NHS was “most likely” responsible for baby deaths at her hospital, according to the BBC.
• “FTSE giant orders 110,000 staff back to the office” – Advertising behemoth WPP has launched a fresh crackdown on working from home, reports the Mail.
• “Facebook is no place for politics” – Social media has been a chief motor in bringing about our age of conformity and censorship, says Patrick West in the Spectator.
• “Mark Zuckerberg has just shown up the BBC” – ‘Fact checking’ is too often an excuse for censoring dissenting voices. Even Facebook has woken up to that fact, writes Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph.
• “Facebook’s flip flop” – On the TTE Substack, Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson argue that Zuckerberg’s recent shift to community-driven moderation on Facebook marks a cultural turning point and call for the platform to confront the damage caused by its pandemic-era censorship.
• “The MHRA papers – part five” – On the TTE Substack, Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan uncover MHRA minutes that reveal vaccine batch issues, which were dismissed with a casual “all’s well” by the manufacturers.
• “The Trump administration must bring Moderna to heel” – The Brownstone Institute calls on the Trump administration to hold Moderna accountable for hiding a child’s death in Covid vaccine trials.
• “NHS attempt to hold trans whistleblower tribunal in secret dismissed” – The NHS tried to have a tribunal into a whistleblower nurse who complained about having to get changed in front of a biological male held in secret, reports the Telegraph.
• “Grooming gang whistleblower speaks out” – In an explosive Tousi TV exclusive interview, rape gang whistleblower Raja Miah exposes the corruption at the heart of the Labour Party.

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