Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of a U-turn after committing to a statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. After resisting pressure for months to implement a full probe, the Prime Minister said he had read “every single word” of an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for the investigation.
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. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the move as a “welcome U-turn”, while Kemi Badenoch called on him to apologise for “six wasted months”.
“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 the correct decision here,” she said. “I’ve been repeatedly calling for a full national inquiry since January. It’s about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months.”
Speaking to reporters travelling with him on his visit to Canada, the Prime Minister said: “I have never said we should not look again at any issue. I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. 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 she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen.
“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.” The Times newspaper reported that the findings of Baroness Casey’s review will be set out in Parliament on Monday.
The inquiry will be able to compel witnesses to give evidence, and it is understood that it will be national in scope, co-ordinating a series of targeted local investigations. Prof Jay’s 2022 report concluded there had been institutional failings across the country and tens of thousands of victims in England and Wales.
A national row over grooming gangs was ignited in January after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his X social media platform to launch a barrage of attacks on Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. It followed the Government’s decision to decline a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town.
The Government later commissioned a “rapid” audit by Lady Casey into the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse, which had been due to take three months but was delayed.
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