Keir Starmer is facing calls to apologise to grooming gang victims (Image: Getty)

Keir Starmer must apologise for “arrogantly and cowardly” refusing to listen to grooming gang victims after another humiliating u-turn, critics have declared.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned “we have already lost months” after the Prime Minister repeatedly rejected calls for a national inquiry into one of Britain’s most shameful scandals.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will finally on Monday confirm the Government is ordering the probe – as Baroness Louise Casey’s bombshell audit into grooming gangs is published.

And Reform UK leader 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.

Kemi Badenoch is demanding Keir Starmer apologise (Image: Getty)

Nigel Farage has demanded a national inquiry (Image: Getty)

The Labour leader claimed those calling for a national inquiry were “jumping on a bandwagon of the far-Right”.

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.”

As well as accusing opponents of jumping on a “far-right bandwagon”, Sir Keir also claimed politicians and activists spread “lies and misinformation” about grooming gangs.

It will recommend that a new national inquiry should look at the race of the perpetrators of the scandal, amid widespread fears it was mainly carried out by groups of Pakistani men.

It is also expected to warn that white British girls who were exploited in towns across the country were “institutionally ignored for fear of racism”.

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.

It follows more fury on Friday when seven Asian men were convicted of sexually exploiting two white teenage schoolgirls in Rochdale.

The men preyed on victims from “deeply troubled home lives” to groom them as “sex slaves” from the age of 13 between 2001 and 2006, the Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard. The men, aged 41 to 67, plied their victims with drugs and alcohol.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Sunday that the priority for the Government was the victims of the abuse and “not people’s hurt feelings about how they’ve been spoken about”.

Television presenter Sir Trevor Phillips, who slammed Labour’s response to the crisis earlier this year, asked Chancellor Rachel Reeves: “When it’s published, will there be some sort of apology to all of those who were criticised by ministers as talking ‘total nonsense’, and misinformation, those who were more or less accused of racism for raising this issue?”

Ms Reeves began to respond with: “The most important thing…”

Before Mr Phillips interjected, saying: “What I’ve asked you is the most important thing. There were many people who were criticised in that way.”

The Chancellor hit back: “Trevor, what is the most important thing… it’s not people’s hurt feelings about how they’ve been spoken about.

“The most important thing here is the victims of these evil crimes.”

Mr Phillips, who has been highly critical of Labour’s record on grooming gangs, blasted: “The reason it matters is because those people who raise this issue on behalf of victims who cannot often speak for themselves, were accused by Government ministers of, quote, total nonsense, misinformation and racism.

“So actually, surely that’s important as well?”

The Chancellor hit back: “Trevor, what is the most important thing… it’s not people’s hurt feelings about how they’ve been spoken about.

“The most important thing here is the victims of these evil crimes.”

Sir Trevor, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Labour’s response to the grooming gangs scandal was “utterly shameful” because it was “so obviously political” to avoid offending a particular demographic of voters.

They will work with specialist child sexual exploitation investigators to snare the vile predators, even if the offences happened years ago.

The Home Office added: “Their job will be to give victims of these horrific crimes, whose cases were not progressed through the criminal justice system, long-awaited justice and prevent more children from being hurt by these vile criminals.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The vulnerable young girls who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice for what they went through when they were just children.

“Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and unforgivable. We are changing that now.

“More than 800 grooming gang cases have already been identified by police after I asked them to look again at cases which had closed too early. Now we are asking the National Crime Agency to lead a major nationwide operation to track down more perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

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.”