Grooming gang review to link illegal immigration with child abuse
The grooming gang review is expected to link illegal immigration with the exploitation of British girls.
The Home Office will publish Baroness Louise Casey's review into the sexual abuse of girls and young women by gangs next week.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, announced the three-month national audit in January to establish the current scale of grooming gangs across the country, explore the 'societal and cultural drivers' and look into the ethnicity of the gangs.
A link between undocumented arrivals to the UK and grooming gangs will be made in the review, sparking fears in the Home Office it could trigger civil unrest, a source familiar with the report told The Sun.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to be told that white British victims were ' institutionally ignored for fear of racism ', The Times has said. The new report will also recommend the Prime Minister launches a new national inquiry to explore the issue of the perpetrators' race and allegations of a cover-up.
Recommendations have also been made regarding the licensing of taxis, as many of those who were later found to have abused girls were cab drivers.
Sir Keir Starmer's Government has previously resisted calls for a national inquiry from the Conservatives, Reform UK and some Labour MPs.
The Tories have added an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to require ministers to start 'a national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs' within three months.
Police forces and prosecutors have historically failed to take action against groomers, some of whom are of British-Pakistani origin, amid fears they would be branded racist or Islamophobic.
While head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Keir admitted in 2012 that in 'a number of cases presented to us' there was 'an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed', saying that prosecutors must not 'shy away from that'.
The Home Office has not denied the inclusion of illegal migration in the report. A government spokesman also refused to deny the report would be linking the grooming scandal with illegal immigration.
They said: 'Nothing is more important than protecting vulnerable children, and we are determined to crack down on vile grooming gangs once and for all.
'That's why we ordered a rapid national audit to uncover the true scale of this horrific abuse.
'This report – alongside our response – will be published shortly.'
'No excuse left' for Starmer
Responding to reports that Baroness Casey will advise the Government to launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs, Kemi Badenoch said: 'If Baroness Casey is now calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, it proves what I've been saying all year: only a full statutory inquiry will expose the truth, bring justice for survivors, and stop this evil from happening again.
'Yet every time we've called for action, Keir Starmer has said no. He's put process over justice, legal caution over moral clarity. If Casey joins survivors and the Conservatives in demanding an inquiry, the Prime Minister will have no excuse left.
'Starmer must stop being a lawyer and start being a leader.'
Group-based grooming, which is classed by police as a form of child sexual exploitation, accounted for 717 offences reported to police in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024.
Grooming represents 17 per cent of group-based child sexual offences, with the biggest threats to children being abuse within the family or by other children.
Group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 4,228 offences, or 3.7 per cent of all 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes in 2023, including online.
It comes as seven men were convicted on Friday of sexually exploiting two white teenage girls in Rochdale, Lancashire.
They preyed on the vulnerabilities of victims who had 'deeply troubled home lives' to groom them as 'sex slaves' from the age of 13 on various dates between 2001 and 2006, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
The men, aged between 41 and 67, plied the girls with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes before expecting them to have sex 'whenever and wherever' the defendants and other men wanted in flats, cars, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called for the case to push Sir Keir into announcing a new national statutory inquiry 'to get to the truth'.
He told The Telegraph: 'I will push this to a vote in Parliament next Wednesday. But so far Labour has refused to have one, which simply continues the cover-up. If they vote against a proper inquiry next week, it will be a day of shame for Labour.'
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