Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report

Dan Aldridge Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

This is Baroness Casey’s independent report. The whole point about asking somebody like Baroness Casey to do an independent report is that we know that they will come to their own conclusions, not anybody else’s. As the hon. Gentleman will see, the report has Baroness Casey’s forthright style and conclusions. In her evidence tomorrow at the Home Affairs Committee, I think she will make it clear that these are her conclusions.

[Dan Aldridge (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to victims, survivors and campaigners. I am 40 years old and it has taken being that age for me to be able to talk about some of the abuse that happened when I was a child. As one of the countless victims living with the impact of grooming, sexual and psychological abuse, I found it galling to watch Tory and Reform Members who never once lifted a finger—[Interruption.] No, you didn’t—not one finger lifted.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. “You didn’t”—you are talking through the Chair. Please ask a quick question as there remain colleagues who hope to contribute.

[Dan Aldridge]

I found it galling that those Members have appointed themselves as defenders of abused people for political gain. Does the Home Secretary agree that neither history nor the British people will be kind to the sickening political opportunism that we have seen from the Conservative and Reform parties?