UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Home Secretary Yvette Cooper reassures that the government’s grooming gang inquiries will go ahead, amid growing concern and political backlash.
As reported by Sky News, a Home Office insider has revealed that additional investigations into child grooming gangs could be initiated, in addition to the five already confirmed.
What did Yvette Cooper say about child grooming gang inquiries?
Yvette Cooper told LBC,
“Yep. We’re still going ahead. The framework is being drawn up at the moment.”
She said,
“There’s been, sadly, a lot of, I think, party political misinformation about this. What we should be doing is all working together to support victims and survivors of these really vile crimes.”
Ms Cooper stated,
“What we’re also doing is we’re putting in place stronger measures. We’re strengthening the law against these gangs and we’re also increasing police investigations, which is the most important thing of all, because, frankly, these perpetrators should be behind bars, and if you don’t get the police investigations in place, that won’t happen.”
The Home Secretary highlighted the ongoing audit under Baroness Louise Casey, which seeks to collect data on grooming gangs to identify the key takeaways at a national level.
What did Jess Phillips say about funding for local authorities on grooming gangs?
Concerns about the future of child grooming gang inquiries arose when Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister, did not offer an update in the Commons. She focused on detailing the government’s new steps to tackle child grooming.
According to Ms Phillips’ update to MPs, local authorities will be granted access to a £5 million fund to support locally-led initiatives on grooming gangs.
She added that after receiving feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach. It will support independent local inquiries, victims’ panels, and audits into the handling of historic grooming cases.
Earlier this week, she told MPs,
“Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally-led audits into the handling of historic cases.”
Later on, Ms Phillips stated,
“far too much party political misinformation about the action that is being taken when everyone should be trying to support victims and survivors.”
She said,
“We are funding new police investigations to re-open historic cases, providing national support for locally led inquiries and action, and Louise Casey… is currently reviewing the nature, scale and ethnicity of grooming gangs offending across the country.”
Referring to more inquiries, she said,
“We will not hesitate to go further, unlike the previous government, which showed no interest in this issue for over 14 years and did nothing to progress the recommendations from the seven-year national inquiry when they had the chance.”
The safeguarding minister continued,
“We will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of justice for victims and will be unrelenting in our crackdown on sick predators and perpetrators who prey on vulnerable children.”
What did Robert Jenrick say about grooming gang inquiries?
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, stated that ministers were “fuelling confusion”.
He said,
“The government snuck this announcement out at the last minute – it’s a total mess that could have been avoided if the government backed a full national inquiry, not this piecemeal alternative,” adding, “The victims have waited too long and deserve so much better than this.”
What did Kemi Badenoch say about Labour’s stance on grooming gang inquiries?
Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, said she was “absolutely astonished” by Labour’s reversal on its January commitment to tackle inquiries into grooming gangs.
She stated,
“They are clearly uncomfortable with having inquiries that are looking into this issue.”
Ms Badenoch continued,
“They said that they’ll have a pot of money for councils to bid in, but why would a council bid for money to investigate itself?”
adding,
“They said that they’ll have a pot of money for councils to bid in, but why would a council bid for money to investigate itself?”
Why are calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs growing?
The demand for a national-level inquiry into the scandal emerged when young girls were groomed and assaulted across multiple cities and towns in England around 10 years ago.
Tech mogul Elon Musk also used his social media platform to accuse Labour of failing to tackle the issue.
However, the government denied a national inquiry, highlighting Professor Alexis Jay’s past work on child sex abuse cases, including organised groups from 2010-2014.
Key findings on grooming gangs
Ethnicity of offenders:
- 85% of grooming gang suspects are white.
- 7% are Asian, and 5% are black.
Victims:
- 85% of victims are white.
- Children aged 10-17 make up the majority of victims.
- Mixed/other ethnic groups are over-represented among victims.
Forms of abuse:
- Predominantly contact abuse (rape, sexual assault).
- Some cases involve online abuse.