Katie Lam: We can make Keir Starmer U-turn yet again, but we need your help
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
Time and again during this Parliament, we’ve seen that change from opposition is genuinely possible.
This Government’s majority may be large, but they are incredibly weak – and with enough pressure, they can be made to change course.
In their 2024 manifesto, Labour promised to introduce ‘day one workers’ rights’, which would have allowed a worker hired in the morning to take their employer to a tribunal in the afternoon. It would have been a disaster for businesses across the country. Yet after months of Conservative campaigning, and pressure from our group in the House of Lords, they scrapped the plans.
In September last year, they walked back plans to introduce a mandatory definition of Islamophobia, which would have effectively protected Islam from criticism. Having initially announced a closed consultation, they were forced to open it up to the public, by the hard work of Conservative colleagues like Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho.
And in just the past week, we’ve seen the disastrous Chagos giveaway put on ice, and Starmer flip-flop on whether or not to allow American strikes on Iran to take place from British military bases.
This is what happens when a party comes into power with no plan for what it wants to do, or how it wants to do it. The British people deserve so much better than this rudderless government – but while they’re still in power, there’s plenty that we can do to force them to listen.
Perhaps the most brazen U-turn of all was on the grooming gangs. In January last year, the Prime Minister described the issue as a “far-right bandwagon”. Lucy Powell, then Deputy Prime Minister, called it a “dog whistle”. Ministers like Yvette Cooper and Jess Phillips denied the need for a proper inquiry until they were blue in the face, insisting that the issue had already been properly investigated.
Then they commissioned Baroness Casey to conduct a rapid review of what we already know about these horrific crimes. Her findings were conclusive – thousands of children, across multiple decades, were groomed, raped, and trafficked by gangs of men, most of whom were Pakistani Muslims. Institutions like the police, local councils, and care homes were complicit in covering up those crimes, often because they feared being branded as racist.
And so, reluctantly, the Government agreed to hold a full national inquiry. There was hope that, finally, we would uncover the full truth about the grooming gangs, and that victims would at last get justice.
Yet despite the shocking findings of Baroness Casey’s review, the Government still doesn’t seem willing to conduct this inquiry in good faith. After the inquiry was announced, they dragged their feet for months, refusing to release any …
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
Time and again during this Parliament, we’ve seen that change from opposition is genuinely possible.
This Government’s majority may be large, but they are incredibly weak – and with enough pressure, they can be made to change course.
In their 2024 manifesto, Labour promised to introduce ‘day one workers’ rights’, which would have allowed a worker hired in the morning to take their employer to a tribunal in the afternoon. It would have been a disaster for businesses across the country. Yet after months of Conservative campaigning, and pressure from our group in the House of Lords, they scrapped the plans.
In September last year, they walked back plans to introduce a mandatory definition of Islamophobia, which would have effectively protected Islam from criticism. Having initially announced a closed consultation, they were forced to open it up to the public, by the hard work of Conservative colleagues like Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho.
And in just the past week, we’ve seen the disastrous Chagos giveaway put on ice, and Starmer flip-flop on whether or not to allow American strikes on Iran to take place from British military bases.
This is what happens when a party comes into power with no plan for what it wants to do, or how it wants to do it. The British people deserve so much better than this rudderless government – but while they’re still in power, there’s plenty that we can do to force them to listen.
Perhaps the most brazen U-turn of all was on the grooming gangs. In January last year, the Prime Minister described the issue as a “far-right bandwagon”. Lucy Powell, then Deputy Prime Minister, called it a “dog whistle”. Ministers like Yvette Cooper and Jess Phillips denied the need for a proper inquiry until they were blue in the face, insisting that the issue had already been properly investigated.
Then they commissioned Baroness Casey to conduct a rapid review of what we already know about these horrific crimes. Her findings were conclusive – thousands of children, across multiple decades, were groomed, raped, and trafficked by gangs of men, most of whom were Pakistani Muslims. Institutions like the police, local councils, and care homes were complicit in covering up those crimes, often because they feared being branded as racist.
And so, reluctantly, the Government agreed to hold a full national inquiry. There was hope that, finally, we would uncover the full truth about the grooming gangs, and that victims would at last get justice.
Yet despite the shocking findings of Baroness Casey’s review, the Government still doesn’t seem willing to conduct this inquiry in good faith. After the inquiry was announced, they dragged their feet for months, refusing to release any …
Katie Lam: We can make Keir Starmer U-turn yet again, but we need your help
How is this acceptable?
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.
Time and again during this Parliament, we’ve seen that change from opposition is genuinely possible.
This Government’s majority may be large, but they are incredibly weak – and with enough pressure, they can be made to change course.
In their 2024 manifesto, Labour promised to introduce ‘day one workers’ rights’, which would have allowed a worker hired in the morning to take their employer to a tribunal in the afternoon. It would have been a disaster for businesses across the country. Yet after months of Conservative campaigning, and pressure from our group in the House of Lords, they scrapped the plans.
In September last year, they walked back plans to introduce a mandatory definition of Islamophobia, which would have effectively protected Islam from criticism. Having initially announced a closed consultation, they were forced to open it up to the public, by the hard work of Conservative colleagues like Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho.
And in just the past week, we’ve seen the disastrous Chagos giveaway put on ice, and Starmer flip-flop on whether or not to allow American strikes on Iran to take place from British military bases.
This is what happens when a party comes into power with no plan for what it wants to do, or how it wants to do it. The British people deserve so much better than this rudderless government – but while they’re still in power, there’s plenty that we can do to force them to listen.
Perhaps the most brazen U-turn of all was on the grooming gangs. In January last year, the Prime Minister described the issue as a “far-right bandwagon”. Lucy Powell, then Deputy Prime Minister, called it a “dog whistle”. Ministers like Yvette Cooper and Jess Phillips denied the need for a proper inquiry until they were blue in the face, insisting that the issue had already been properly investigated.
Then they commissioned Baroness Casey to conduct a rapid review of what we already know about these horrific crimes. Her findings were conclusive – thousands of children, across multiple decades, were groomed, raped, and trafficked by gangs of men, most of whom were Pakistani Muslims. Institutions like the police, local councils, and care homes were complicit in covering up those crimes, often because they feared being branded as racist.
And so, reluctantly, the Government agreed to hold a full national inquiry. There was hope that, finally, we would uncover the full truth about the grooming gangs, and that victims would at last get justice.
Yet despite the shocking findings of Baroness Casey’s review, the Government still doesn’t seem willing to conduct this inquiry in good faith. After the inquiry was announced, they dragged their feet for months, refusing to release any …
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