Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has become the latest politician to call for a national public inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”. Her demand follows Home Office minister Jess Phillips’ rejection of Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation back in October, indicating the council should run the investigation instead. Senior Tories and Elon Musk picked up the story after GB News reported it. Shadow Home Office minister Chris Philp informed the BBC a full national inquiry was now required, with the power to compel witnesses and get to the truth.
Several large-scale investigations have reported the systemic rape of young women by organised gangs in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale, Bristol and other towns. The sexual abuse of young girls by grooming gangs has fuelled a number of far-right campaigns with a focus mainly on cases of large-scale abuse carried out by men of Pakistani descent. An inquiry covering abuse in Rotherham revealed that more than 1,400 children had suffered sexual abuse over a 16-year period, primarily by British Pakistani men. In Telford, up to 1,000 girls were abused, with some cases not being investigated because of “nervousness about race.”
In Oldham, an inquiry was formed after rumours spread online that children were being groomed in council homes, shisha bars, and by taxi drivers. The report discovered that there was no proof of “widespread” child sex abuse in those settings or of a cover-up by the council. However, the review identified other serious failings among safeguarding services in the area. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) published its final report in 2022 and brought together several of the inquiries alongside its investigations. The inquiry’s lead, Professor Alexis Jay, stated in November that she felt “frustrated” that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.
Philp told Radio 4’s World at One program that he supported Oldham Council’s call for a government-led inquiry, despite the previous Conservative government rejecting a similar request from an Oldham councillor in 2022. He said perpetrators in “grooming gangs and rape gangs” that seemed “overwhelmingly of South Asian background” should be examined. Philp also stated that questions needed to be answered on a national scale about local authorities, social care, and police conduct. He did not rule out an inquiry looking at the role of Sir Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013
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