The grisly details emerging from Paris have landed on Sir Keir Starmer’s desk with a thud. A child abuse ring, hundreds of victims, and allegations of institutional failure. Now, the inevitable Westminster game begins.
Demands for a nationwide audit of school safeguarding protocols are echoing through the corridors. Labour backbenchers are mobilising. The NSPCC is sharpening its press releases.
The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is reportedly “open to all options” – but her officials are already drafting the lines to avoid a full-blown crisis. This is how it starts. One scandal, one foreign capital, and suddenly every domestic weakness is exposed under the spotlight.
The question is not whether there will be an audit, but how far it will reach. Will it simply be a tick-box exercise, or will it unearth the kind of systemic failings that keep ministers awake at night? The answer lies in the data.
Polling suggests the public is increasingly distrustful of institutions. A major safeguarding failure would be a political earthquake. Expect the usual dance: urgent questions, a flurry of promises, a select committee inquiry that takes years.
But for now, the pressure is real. Phillipson’s phone has not stopped ringing. The chief whip is counting the number of MPs who have already signed early day motions.
The game is on.
