6 hours ago16:06 Steph Spyro

The national inquiry into grooming gangs will aim to tackle “continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling”, the Home Secretary said.

Formally announcing the inquiry to the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper said: “We asked Baroness Casey to review those responses as well as the arrangements and powers that have been used in past investigations and inquiries to consider the best means to get to the truth.

“Her report concludes that further local investigations are needed, but they should be directed and overseen by a national commission with statutory inquiry powers. We agree, and we will set up a national inquiry to that effect.

“Baroness Casey is not recommending another overarching inquiry, of the kind conducted by Professor Alexis Jay, and she recommends that the inquiry should be time limited. But its purpose must be to challenge what the audit describes as continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling among local agencies.”

6 hours ago16:05 Michael Knowles

Baroness Casey concluded: “This audit presents an opportunity for the government, for our policing, justice and safeguarding agencies and the country as a whole, to draw a line in the sand between all of the previous reviews and a new commitment to take a series of significant actions to make sure we do not end up back here again in a few years’ time.

“These actions need to be accompanied by commitments to honest, transparency and to prioritising the safety of children above all else; by an apology to all the victims of child sexual exploitation who have been let down in the past and by a more rigorous and relentless pursuit of the minority of men who have preyed on vulnerable children and looked for gaps in our safeguarding systems to commit heinous crimes.

“Unless government and all the organisations involved are able to stand up and acknowledge the failures of the past, to apologise for them unreservedly, and to act now to put things right, including current cases, we will not move on as a society.”

6 hours ago16:01 Michael Knowles

Organisations were terrified of being labelled racist and upsetting Pakistani voters, the bombshell audit revealed.

Baroness Casey revealed: “We heard from police forces that local authorities would discourage them from publicising the successful conviction of perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation due to fears of raising tensions.

“Publicising successful prosecutions is a well-established method for police to encourage other victims to come forward, especially those that are historically under-reported like child sexual abuse and exploitation.

“Instead of examining whether there is disproportionality in ethnicity or cultural factors at play in certain types of offending, we found many examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist, raising community tensions or causing community cohesion problems.”

6 hours ago15:56 Michael Knowles

Baroness Louise Casey warned institutional “defensiveness” has “added to the misery” of victims.

She said: “Justice might also have been better served in the past if children’s services, the police and other criminal justice agencies had applied fewer stereotypes and judgements to the victims of child sexual exploitation, to have given them the protection and safeguarding response they deserved instead of treating or seeing them as complicit adults.

“The defensive behaviours of organisations responsible when challenged on their handling of child sexual exploitation has added to the misery and suffering of victims and further hampered efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation more effectively.

“Resistance and reluctance to review and acknowledge past mistakes, apologise and take action is unnecessary and leaves wounds unhealed.

“The result of all of this has been a blind-spot in the way institutions have addressed child sexual exploitation, with too many of the most important people at the heart of this crime – the victims – many still waiting for justice.

“This pattern will be repeated in the present day unless change happens.”

6 hours ago15:54 Steph Spyro

Kemi Badenoch is responding to Yvette Cooper’s statement in the Commons.

She says Sir Keir Starmer has shown an “extraordinary failure of leadership” for failing to call a national inquiry sooner.

6 hours ago15:52 Steph Spyro

Yvette Cooper has confirmed there are ongoing grooming gang investigations where the suspects are illegal migrants.

6 hours ago15:48 Steph Spyro

The damning findings of Baroness Casey’s grooming gang report:

• Evidence of “over-representation” among male suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage in local data.
• Evidence that authorities refused to examine the ethnicity of offenders for “fear of appearing racist”.
• Continued failure to gather robust national data about the ethnicity of offenders

6 hours ago15:47 Steph Spyro

Yvette Cooper says she plans to change the law to make more groomers face rape charges, saying those who target girls aged 13-15, saying too many are having offences downgraded because they were deemed to be in “consensual” relationships.

6 hours ago15:46 Steph Spyro

The Government will unveil further details about grooming gang national inquiry in “due course”, Yvette Cooper tells the Commons.

6 hours ago15:41 Steph Spyro

More than 800 grooming and sexual exploitation cases will be reviewed – and Yvette Cooper expects the figure to rise to more than 1,000.

Yvette Cooper said the audit had identified victims as young as ten, often those in care for children with learning or physical disabilities being targeted for grooming “precisely because of their vulnerability”.

She said that “children as young as ten plied with drugs and alcohol, brutally raped by gangs of men” had been “disgracefully let down again and again by the authorities who were meant to protect them and keep them safe”.

Ms Cooper is responding to the recommendations of Baroness Louise Casey, which have already prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance.

6 hours ago15:40 Steph Spyro

Home Secretary said there were institutional failures which contributed to victims being let down with a lack of justice on grooming gangs.

6 hours ago15:37 Steph Spyro

Baroness Casey found a “deep rooted failure to treat children as children”, Yvette Cooper has told the Commons

6 hours ago15:37 Katie Harris

Yvette Cooper has begun her grooming gangs statement to MPs in the House of Commons.

The Home Secretary is announcing the findings of a report by Baroness Louise Casey.

The Home Secretary addresses MPs (Image: PARLIAMENT TV)
7 hours ago14:59 Steph Spyro

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will make a statement on Baroness Casey’s findings into grookming gans in the Commons at 3.30pm.

10 hours ago12:28 Michael Knowles

The national grooming gangs inquiry will see more than 800 cold cases followed up on by the National Crime Agency.

Local inquiries already announced are expected to become part of the national inquiry, Downing Street said.

A No 10 spokesman did not say how much the inquiry would cost and the timeframe, saying the Home Secretary would set out details this afternoon.

The inquiry will build on the seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.

The spokesman said: “It will be a full statutory inquiry. What this inquiry will do is build on the work carried out by Alexis Jay and her independent inquiry to child sexual abuse, but look specifically at how young girls were failed so badly by different agencies on a local level, strengthening the commitment we made at the start of this year to carry out locally-led inquiries.

“By setting up a new inquiry under the inquiries act with statutory powers to compel witnesses, the local authorities and institutions who fail to act to protect young people will not be able to hide and will finally be held to account for their action.”

10 hours ago12:23 Michael Knowles

The Chancellor decided she would show how tough she was by scrapping the popular benefit for 10million pensioners.

It was her first big decision – and it backfired spectacularly.

Read more from Harvey Jones on the winter fuel fiasco here.

10 hours ago12:15 Michael Knowles

A Labour minister was called out by LBC’s Nick Ferrari for not knowing basic details about a major new infrastructure project in a car-crash interview. Treasury minister Emma Reynolds struggled to answer questions about the Lower Thames Crossing, including the exact location and the cost.

Read the full story here

10 hours ago12:12 Michael Knowles

Chantelle told GB News seeking justice has had a devastating impact due to the length of time it has taken.

‘If I could go back six years, I wouldn’t have started working with the police.’

Grooming gang survivor Chantelle breaks down in tears as she admits she wishes she hadn’t tried to take action against her perpetrators, due to the length of time it’s taking for her to get justice. pic.twitter.com/7bE4sVwmc2

\u2014 GB News (@GBNEWS) June 16, 2025
10 hours ago11:51 Michael Knowles

The Tories claim Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer went “sightseeing” as the public demand answers over the grooming gangs scandal.

10 hours ago11:46 Michael Knowles

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon, declares the Labour government should have announced this national inquiry months ago.

He adds that the issues were not properly addressed by previous inquiries.

This is “one of biggest scandals since WW2 and that’s why it needs a national inquiry,” he adds.

Scorer warns that there is a problem with inquiry recommendations actually being carried out.

“If we are going to spend money on inquiries like this then we have got to ensure the recommendations are implemented”.

11 hours ago11:14 Michael Knowles

Sammy Woodhouse, a victim, said of a new national inquiry: “It needs to investigate every single council and police force in this country. It needs to be independent, and it needs to have the statutory power.

“I want people named. We need to name, shame and bring these people to account, because not one person has been held to account yet. We hear that lessons have been learnt, well, no lessons have been learnt because we’re still here. We’re still decades on, trying to fight for this, and still, of course, happening today.”

11 hours ago11:10 Michael Knowles

Grooming gang survivor Chantelle has revealed victims were labelled “prostitutes” and said she is still fighting for justice.

Jade and Chantelle say they survived years of abuse at the hands of grooming gangs, being drugged and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions, Chantelle from just 11 years old. pic.twitter.com/PmFHqA2VCY

\u2014 Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 16, 2025
13 hours ago09:13 Michael Knowles

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.”

13 hours ago08:48 Michael Knowles

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.

14 hours ago08:18 Michael Knowles

Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 that the 20 recommendations from the previous inquiry “sat in a drawer for a while” but were now starting to be used.

She said: “The thought of having another filled me with horror, and I was reluctant, but when I realised the overwhelming public concern, there’s a real sense justice has not been handed out fairly and there has been a cover-up and intense frustration that there are still victims and survivors who haven’t received justice.

“I have an intense frustration that not the frontline staff but further up the management chain there were people who were actively blocking reports, people who I think if not held to a criminal standard should be held to a professional standard for their negligence in protecting those children.

“I saw people that would have faced the most criticism have left, took early retirement, changed to a different job and some are having very successful careers, and that’s an intense frustration when because of their negligence they have continued to let children be exposed and exploited.”

She said the biggest failing was that “no-one has joined the dots up” when it came to grooming gangs of a Pakistani heritage.

She said: “Are there any links between those different groups and gangs? Personally, I think it’s highly likely that there will be.”

14 hours ago08:16 Michael Knowles

A former prosecutor said he has “pragmatic doubts” about a new “grooming gangs” national inquiry.

Nazir Afzal, who was chief crown prosecutor for the North West from 2011 to 2015, told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 that national inquiries were costly and lengthy, and could not bring people the accountability they wanted.

He said: “People want accountability. I’m not sure people’s expectations will be realised.

“Only criminal investigations can bring real accountability.

That’s what needs to happen. Not just for those who offended, but also those who stood by and didn’t do what they were meant to do.

“Unfortunately my experience with national inquiries is that they take forever and don’t deliver accountability.”

He suggested placing a time limit on the inquiry.

14 hours ago08:10 Michael Knowles

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Keir Starmer has “wasted six months” and accused the Prime Minister of “arrogantly and cowardly” refusing to listen.

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.”

14 hours ago07:38 Katie Harris

The review comes after Sir Keir Starmer become embroiled in a row with US tech billionaire Elon Musk over the issue earlier this year.

In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far right”.

But the Chancellor yesterday insisted that Sir Keir had been focused on “victims” rather than “grandstanding”.

Asked whether Sir Keir Starmer had changed his mind about the idea of a national inquiry, Rachel Reeves told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I think Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister, has always been really focused, as he was when he was director of public prosecutions, on the victims and not grandstanding.

“But actually doing the practical things to ensure that something like this never happens again, but also to ensure that the victims of this horrific abuse over many, many years is got to grips with and that people have answers to their questions.”

14 hours ago07:37 Katie Harris

Yvette Cooper is set to confirm a national grooming gangs inquiry in an address to Parliament today.

The Home Secretary will announce the findings of Baroness Louise Casey’s review on grooming gangs.

The report prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance.