Government “tolerated” failing services, Labour says after Labinjo-Hughes death

Bridget Phillipson has called for action following the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, telling the minister that “for too long, this government has tolerated failing children’s services and a failure to protect children”.

Responding to a statement by Nadhim Zahawi this afternoon, the newly-appointed Shadow Education Secretary said the whole country had been “horrified” by the murder of the six-year-old by his father and stepmother after social workers reported “no safeguarding concerns”.

“Searching questions must be asked about how services operated nationally. But questions must also be asked nationally. Questions about how the services that should be keeping children safe are overseen and why, tragically, cases like this keep happening,” Phillipson said.

Labinjo-Hughes was tortured and killed by his father Thomas Hughes and his stepmother Emma Tustin in June 2020. The pair were sentenced in November this year, to 21 years for manslaughter and 29 years for murder respectively.

The government announced a national review following his death. Zahawi told MPs today that the government is “distraught” by what he described as “evil acts”, and said ministers would take “any action needed to protect children”.

Solihull Council workers visited the home two months before his death, after his paternal grandmother called an emergency number to report seeing bruises on his back, but reported that the boy was living in a “happy household”.

Labinjo-Hughes died of a head injury. Tustin had shaken him and banged his head on a hard surface after poisoning him with salt. Labinjo-Hughe was found to have 130 injuries. The Department for Education said it will outline details of the review in coming days.

The Education Secretary said he is determined to “get to the truth and expose what went wrong”. Phillipson said that she hoped he would be examining how services are monitored and called on Zahawi to ensure that the Department “gets its house in order”.

“Failure should never be an acceptable outcome for any public service, and that is especially true when it comes to protecting children,” Phillipson argued.

“For too long, this government has tolerated failing children’s services and a failure to protect children. Vulnerable children are being failed and that cannot go on. [Zahawi] must now set out how he plans to tackle that culture.”

Emma Lewell-Buck, who served as the shadow minister for children and families between October 2016 and March 2019, told MPs how she had warned of the impact of austerity on the ability of the government to protect children.

“I repeatedly warned him that pursuing this government’s agenda of cuts, increasing bureaucracy, deregulation and privatisation of child protection would cost a child’s life. Like his predecessors, he ignored me,” she said.

Diane Abbott, reminding Zahawi of his vow to “do whatever it takes”, asked the minister to make the case for greater resources if the review reveals that under-resourcing is “one of the main issues”. Zahawi said: “Whatever the review recommends, it is exactly the thing that we will look to implement.”