Yvette Cooper is set to announce a national grooming gangs inquiry today after Sir Keir Starmer’s U-turn. The Home Secretary is set to address Parliament with Baroness Louise Casey’s findings on grooming gangs.
The review prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance. Earlier this year, the Government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.
In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far right”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warned “we have already lost months”, while Reform UK’s Nigel Farage insisted Sir Keir must apologise for his “insults” towards campaigners and politicians demanding an inquiry into the rape and sexual abuse of young girls and women in up to 50 towns.
What has Downing Street said of the overnight criticism?
A spokesman for the Prime Minister: “If you look back at his words at PMQs, he said ‘fair minded people will disagree on the right approach on dealing with this. The priority is delivering for victims.
“Louise Casey went into her audit not in a place of thinking another national inquiry was required, and the government has got on and been implementing the recommendations of the Jay inquiry and several other inquiries that have come before, but now we’ve received these recommendations of course we will act and implement it.”
The spokesman rejected claims Keir Starmer had called those demanding an inquiry “far right”.
He added: “There are a range of views from a range of places on this.”
What has the Home Office said overnight?
The Home Office said on Sunday night that the national inquiry will “look specifically at how young girls were failed so badly by different agencies at a local level”.
This will hold institutions that failed to protect victims, amid fears of cover ups, to account, officials said. The national inquiry will be able to order local investigations and compel witnesses to attend hearings.
These will be “time-limited” and based on the number of victims, it is understood.
They will be independent, the Daily Express understands, and based on criminal investigations and testimonies from victims and witnesses.
Justice has not been handed out fairly, Rotherham MP says
Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 that the 20 recommendations from the previous inquiry “sat in a drawer for a while” but were now starting to be used.
She said: “The thought of having another filled me with horror, and I was reluctant, but when I realised the overwhelming public concern, there’s a real sense justice has not been handed out fairly and there has been a cover-up and intense frustration that there are still victims and survivors who haven’t received justice.
“I have an intense frustration that not the frontline staff but further up the management chain there were people who were actively blocking reports, people who I think if not held to a criminal standard should be held to a professional standard for their negligence in protecting those children.
“I saw people that would have faced the most criticism have left, took early retirement, changed to a different job and some are having very successful careers, and that’s an intense frustration when because of their negligence they have continued to let children be exposed and exploited.”
She said the biggest failing was that “no-one has joined the dots up” when it came to grooming gangs of a Pakistani heritage.
She said: “Are there any links between those different groups and gangs? Personally, I think it’s highly likely that there will be.”
Former chief prosecutor casts doubt on national inquiry
A former prosecutor said he has “pragmatic doubts” about a new “grooming gangs” national inquiry.
Nazir Afzal, who was chief crown prosecutor for the North West from 2011 to 2015, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 that national inquiries were costly and lengthy, and could not bring people the accountability they wanted.
He said: “People want accountability. I’m not sure people’s expectations will be realised.
“Only criminal investigations can bring real accountability.
That’s what needs to happen. Not just for those who offended, but also those who stood by and didn’t do what they were meant to do.
“Unfortunately my experience with national inquiries is that they take forever and don’t deliver accountability.”
He suggested placing a time limit on the inquiry.
Starmer must apologise, leading politicians declare
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Keir Starmer has “wasted six months” and accused the Prime Minister of “arrogantly and cowardly” refusing to listen.
Mrs Badenoch said: “For six months I warned the Prime Minister that only a full national inquiry could get to the bottom of the appalling rape gangs scandal.
“Keir Starmer arrogantly and cowardly refused, ignoring not just me but the survivors who are so bravely fighting for justice.
“Now he’s changed his mind because a report told him to, which sums up his entire approach to politics. We have already lost months and there’s no more time to lose.
“This inquiry needs to be speedy but also willing to investigate the councils and authorities which have so far refused to explain their part in what really happened.”
She added: “It’s about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months.”
Reform UK leader Mr Farage told the Daily Express: “Keir Starmer should apologise to the victims for the cynical way that he tried to avoid a proper grooming gang inquiry and for his insults to those that have tried to ensure the perpetrators are held to account.
“If this turns out to be a whitewash, the fury of the country will be hard to control.
“This needs to be a proper inquiry – with full terms-of-reference, on a sensible timescale.”
Shadow Justice Robert Jenrick said: “For months, Starmer was part of the rape gang cover up by refusing to grant a national inquiry.
“He even displayed the same behaviour that led to the scandal happening in the first place, smearing people demanding justice as ‘far right’.
“He should apologise to the victims and campaigners for getting this so badly wrong for so long.”
Row over grooming gangs
The review comes after Sir Keir Starmer become embroiled in a row with US tech billionaire Elon Musk over the issue earlier this year.
In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far right”.
But the Chancellor yesterday insisted that Sir Keir had been focused on “victims” rather than “grandstanding”.
Asked whether Sir Keir Starmer had changed his mind about the idea of a national inquiry, Rachel Reeves told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I think Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister, has always been really focused, as he was when he was director of public prosecutions, on the victims and not grandstanding.
“But actually doing the practical things to ensure that something like this never happens again, but also to ensure that the victims of this horrific abuse over many, many years is got to grips with and that people have answers to their questions.”
Cooper to announce grooming gangs probe
Yvette Cooper is set to confirm a national grooming gangs inquiry in an address to Parliament today.
The Home Secretary will announce the findings of Baroness Louise Casey’s review on grooming gangs.
The report prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance.
