Keir Starmer to release nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs

Keir Starmer will release a nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs after receiving the suggestions of an impartial document at the scandal.

The top minister mentioned a brand new statutory inquiry was once “the right thing to do” in accordance with the findings submitted by way of Louise Casey, who has performed a months-long inquiry into the abuse of younger women.

Speaking to journalists travelling with him to the G7 summit in Canada, Starmer mentioned Casey beneficial “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,” he mentioned. “I shall now implement her recommendations.”

Asked to set out a timeline for the inquiry, Starmer mentioned: “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.”

Starmer has prior to now resisted drive for a brand new nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs, and mentioned previous this yr it will prolong justice for sufferers. He known as for ministers to as an alternative focal point on imposing the suggestions of earlier evaluations.

Casey was once requested to hold out a three-month nationwide evaluate at the scale and extent of grooming gangs in January after generating a document into sexual abuse in Rotherham.

She was once tasked with inspecting knowledge now not to be had to the preliminary nationwide inquiry led by way of Alexis Jay, and to seem into the ethnicity and demographics of abusers and sufferers, in addition to “the cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending, including among different ethnic groups”.

Starmer mentioned on Saturday that Casey’s “position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry”, however that she had modified her thoughts after reviewing the proof.

In parallel to Casey’s evaluate, the federal government requested Tom Crowther KC, who led an investigation in Telford, to assist devise a fashion for a sequence of equivalent investigations in 5 cities the place women had been abused, together with Oldham.

Ministers got here underneath drive over grooming gangs remaining yr after Elon Musk spotlighted the federal government’s resolution to refuse Oldham council’s request for a 2nd nationwide inquiry. The US billionaire’s flurry of tweets at the matter introduced the scandal again into public awareness.

On Friday, seven males who groomed two prone teenage women in Rochdale had been discovered accountable of a couple of intercourse offences after a long-running trial. The courtroom heard the boys subjected the women to years of distress and anticipated them to have intercourse with them “whenever and wherever they wanted”.

Casey’s 2015 evaluate into the scandal in Rotherham mentioned there were an “archaic culture of sexism, bullying and discomfort around race”, with councillors and personnel fearing being labelled racist in the event that they discussed the ethnicity of perpetrators.

In reaction to the announcement of a brand new nationwide inquiry, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative birthday party chief, mentioned: “Keir Starmer doesn’t know what he thinks unless an official report has told him so … 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.”