Cliff Notes
- Sir Keir Starmer is initiating a national inquiry into grooming gangs, following insights from a government-requested audit led by Baroness Casey.
- The Prime Minister has reversed his earlier stance against a national inquiry, agreeing to implement Baroness Casey’s recommendations based on her findings.
- The forthcoming report is anticipated to highlight institutional failures in addressing the abuse of young girls, suggesting systemic neglect linked to fears of being labelled racist.
Sir Keir Starmer to launch new national inquiry into grooming gangs
Sir Keir Starmer is to launch a new national inquiry into grooming gangs.
It comes after a government-requested audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country concluded a nationwide probe was necessary.
The prime minister previously argued a national inquiry was not necessary, but has changed his view following an audit into group-based child sexual abuse led by Baroness Casey, which is set to be published next week.
“[Baroness Casey’s] 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,” he told reporters travelling with him to the G7 summit in Canada.
“She has looked at the material… 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.
“I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me, and having read her report… I shall now implement her recommendations.”
Grooming gangs timeline: What happened, what inquiries there were and how Starmer was involved