Starmer launches national grooming gangs inquiry

Telegraph

11 hours ago

Sir Keir Starmer has announced that he will commission a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal following months of demands from his political opponents.
The Prime Minister said he would accept the recommendation made by Baroness Casey, who has been carrying out a 'national audit' into the grooming gangs.
It is a significant change in position from Sir Keir, who for months has resisted taking the move, instead allowing five councils to set up their own investigations.
The Tories and Reform, which has surged in support this year, have been calling for a nationwide inquiry. The Tories on Saturday demanded Sir Keir apologise for initially resisting the move.
The inquiry will be 'statutory', meaning it will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence. It is unclear when it will begin, what the remit will be or who will head it up.
The scandal, which saw girls forced into sex by much older men, was first exposed in Rochdale in 2011 and has been investigated in a variety of different forms.
It re-entered the spotlight earlier this year when Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, started repeatedly criticising Sir Keir and demanding a nationwide inquiry.
The Prime Minister initially focussed on previous recommendations being implemented, allowing councils to launch local inquiries and having Baroness Casey review the situation.
The Casey audit is due to be published next week. Media reports on Friday suggested it would explicitly link the problem with men of Pakistani origin and propose a nationwide inquiry.
With details beginning to leak, Sir Keir took the decision to confirm, as he travelled to Canada to attend the G7 summit, that he would accept the recommendation.
Sir Keir said: 'I have always said that we should implement the recommendations we have got because we have got many other recommendations.
'I think there are 200 when you take all of the reviews that have gone on at every level and we have got to get on with implementing them. I have never said we should not look again at any issue.'
The Prime Minister added: 'That's why I asked Louise Casey, who I hugely respect, to do an audit.
'Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on. She has looked at the material and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry.
'I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.'
Starmer 'had to be led by the nose'
But political opponents jumped on the about-turn. The Tories had been planning to trigger another vote in the House of Commons and attempt to force an inquiry within three months.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: 'Keir Starmer doesn't know what he thinks unless an official report has told him so.
'Just like he dismissed concerns about the winter fuel payment and then had to U-turn, just like he needed the Supreme Court to tell him what a woman is, he had to be led by the nose to make this correct decision here.
'I've been repeatedly calling for a full national inquiry since January. It's about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologise for six wasted months.
'But this must not be the end of the matter. There are many, many more questions that need answering to ensure this inquiry is done properly and quickly.
'Many survivors of the grooming gangs will be relieved that this is finally happening, but they need a resolution soon, not in 10 years' time. Justice delayed is justice denied.'
It is not just political opponents who have been calling for a nationwide inquiry. Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester and former Labour MP, said there was an argument for one earlier in the year.
Downing Street's initial response to the demands voiced in January was to point back to an inquiry into child sexual abuse conducted by Professor Alexis Jay in 2022.
That inquiry was nationwide and included looking at grooming gangs. But critics said the grooming element was only a smaller part of that wider investigation.
Ministers initially insisted the focus should be on implementing the recommendations of Prof Jay's inquiry. Prof Jay herself appeared to stress the importance of this approach.
Baroness Casey, an experienced Whitehall troubleshooter, is yet to publish the results of her five-month audit, which went longer than expected, but details have begun to leak.
The Times reported that Baroness Casey would formally recommend a nationwide inquiry and say that some victims were 'institutionally ignored for fear of racism'.
The Sun said the audit would directly link illegal migration with the exploitation of British girls and reported concerns in the Home Office about the public reaction when the report is published.
A Home Office spokesman declined to confirm or deny the details of the review, which is formally called the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation.
In January, Mr Musk criticised both Sir Keir and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister responsible for tackling violence against women and girls.
His repeated interventions on the social media site X, demanding a national inquiry, forced the issue up the agenda in British politics and also created strains between Sir Keir's government and the incoming Trump administration.
Asked when the inquiry would launch, Sir Keir said on Saturday: 'It will be statutory under the Inquiries Act. That will take a bit of time to sort out exactly how that works and we will set that out in an orderly way.'