All The Details

In the midst of it all, two important Questions to the Prime Minister went unremarked on Wednesday. First, this, from Charlie Dewhirst:

I will give the Prime Minister some brief respite from Peter Mandelson. However, he will also be familiar with the name Phil Shiner, the disgraced lawyer who was struck off and convicted for repeatedly inventing vexatious cases against British troops in Iraq. It is something of a surprise that the Prime Minister authored a chapter in Mr Shiner’s book about pursuing our veterans via the European Court of Human Rights. Can I ask him specifically: was he ever instructed by Mr Shiner’s law firm, Public Interest Lawyers, to act in any legal case?

Keir Starmer replied:

Let me be absolutely clear about this: as soon as there were any allegations of wrongdoing by Phil Shiner, I had absolutely nothing to do with him.

And the last Question asked, not even broadcast on Politics Live, from Suella Braverman:

I recently met one of the bravest women I know. Elizabeth was 14 when she was raped in Rotherham. She is one of the survivors of the rape gangs—one of the biggest national scandals in our history. While her first rapist, Asghar Bostan, was convicted and sentenced, she was, shockingly, subsequently allegedly abused by police officers serving in South Yorkshire police. One of those officers remains on active service today. Elizabeth made complaints through Operation Linden, but none of them was followed up. She rightly feels betrayed and failed by the very institution designed to protect her. Will the Prime Minister meet Elizabeth, rape gang survivors and me to commit that those who committed and covered up these abhorrent offences are put behind bars, where they belong?

Replied Starmer:

I am deeply concerned about the facts that the right hon. Lady has outlined. If she could give us all the details, I will make sure that there is a follow-up meeting in relation to her concerns.

Everyone knows that Starmer, with Richard Hermer, was indeed instructed by Public Interest Lawyers, and that would now be enough to deprive Starmer of the support both of the Blairites and of the Old Labour Right if they had anyone with whom to replace him, but of course Peter Mandelson has rendered Wes Streeting impossible, so they are stuck with Starmer.

And on 2 September, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, whose brief 2015 Leadership campaign was chaired by Streeting but who has gone uncharacteristically quiet this week, told the House of Commons that, “South Yorkshire police should never have been left to investigate themselves in this matter, and moving those investigations to the NCA is absolutely the right thing to do. I would be lying if I said that over the years I had not met girls who talked to me about how police were part of not just the cover-up but the perpetration.”