Dame Andrea Jenkyns has applauded Nigel Farage’s “great idea” to solve Labour’s grooming gangs inquiry chaos, declaring Keir Starmer’s handling of it as “disgusting”.

Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK Mayor for Greater Lincolnshire heaped praise on survivor Ellie-Ann Reynolds, who accused the Government of “rigging” the current inquiry.

Announcing his solution on Monday, the Reform UK leader put forward plans for a “select committee” and declared Labour’s inquiry “dead in the water”.

Calling on Parliament to “step up” and take over the process, Mr Farage said: “Here is the most enormous opportunity for Parliament, and indeed for this Government, to restore some public trust in the institution and those that currently inhabit it on an issue that has been gnawing away at our public consciences for well over a decade.”

Delivering her verdict on the plan, Mrs Jenkyns told GB News: “I think it’s a great idea, actually, because I’ve been on three select committees myself.

“I was on the Brexit Committee when I was trying to scrutinise what the Government did, and it was the lack of detail where there wasn’t preparation for no deal which led me to resign from Government. I was also on the House Select committee and the European Scrutiny committee.

“And the great thing about these is that you have that ability as individual MPs to really question and push back at what’s needed.”

Criticising Sir Keir Starmer for his handling of the grooming gangs inquiry, she fumed: “I’m absolutely disgusted by the way this is being handled.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Nigel Farage rips up rulebook as Reform sets out new vision to handle grooming gangs scandal
• Nigel Farage ‘very unhappy’ with Sarah Pochin’s ‘ugly’ comment as grooming gang survivor slams media
• Nigel Farage compares ‘terrifying’ columns of masked Muslim men to ‘foreign invading army’

“To hear from Ellie, the brave survivor of the grooming gangs, to speak from the heart like this, how it was all stage managed, how she found it degrading being spoken down to and how they couldn’t even mention the ethnicity.”

The Reform Mayor stated: “Let’s not get away from this, this is Pakistani paedophiles, and I don’t think any paedophiles who hurt anybody, who hurt a child in this way deserves to live in my opinion.”

Highlighting the issue of ethnicity within the grooming gangs scandal, host Patrick Christys told Mrs Jenkyns: “There’s an obsession with race when it comes to someone saying something about how many black people are in TV adverts, but of course they don’t want to acknowledge the overt racism and the abuse of working class white girls do they?”

Agreeing with Patrick, she told GB News: “Absolutely, it’s been going on far too long, isn’t it?

“You find people frightened to speak out and speak the truth, and I think actually that Pandora’s box is open now and everybody is prepared to fight back for justice. I still take my hat off to Ellie, wasn’t she brave?”

Offering her reaction to comments made by Reform MP Sarah Pochin, who claimed it “drives her mad” when she sees “adverts full of black people and full of Asian people”, Mrs Jenkyns concluded: “On the Sarah comments, I think Nigel summed it up well.

“It was an ugly way it was said, and Sarah herself said it was clumsy, but it doesn’t get away from the fact that the truth is that the DEI squad have actually rewrote history in some cases.”

Ms Pochin later apologised and said her comments were “phrased poorly”, but maintained that many adverts were “unrepresentative of British society”.

Mr Farage also condemned the comments, stating: “I am unhappy with what she has done. The way she worded it was wrong and was ugly, and if I thought that the intention behind it was racist, I would have taken a lot more action than I have to date.”