Rotherham victim tells LBC Starmer is 'afraid of what will come back on him' if national grooming gang inquiry is opened

8 January 2025, 19:08 | Updated: 8 January 2025, 19:26

A Rotherham grooming gang victim has told LBC that Keir Starmer is "afraid of what will come back on him" if a national inquiry takes place.

The 38-year-old woman, who was first groomed in South Yorkshire aged just 14, has echoed calls for a national enquiry, telling Andrew Marr there has been a "large reluctance" to probe the response of authorities.

"My real opinion is I think he's afraid of what's going to come back on him as well," she told Andrew Marr on Wednesday.

"I think there's a large reluctance on that. I also believe that they don't want the true answers to come to be known because every town and city that's been affected by this, which is over 50 town cities have all been Labour controlled authorities.

"I'm 38 next. I've been living this since being 14, so another few years wouldn't do any harm," she added.

The woman, who's identity has been withheld, was groomed by Shafina Ali - a woman she met at a bus stop near her home in 2003.

Read more: 'Action not inquiries': Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch clash over grooming gangs in stormy PMQs

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Rotherham victim says there's a 'party political point' to the PM ruling out a new national inquiry

"It’s your worst nightmare, times 100,” she told Marr of her experience at the hands of the grooming gang.

The Rotherham victim explained that the woman who groomed her was “known to authorities years and years" before she was lured to her flat, where she was plied with drink and drugs before men were invited to rape her.

Explaining the horrors of her case, the 38-year-old explained Ali “lured girls into exploitation under nine aliases,” even making "a fake rape crisis hotline" to groom victims.

“She made me feel like I fitted in,” she told Marr, explaining she "‘went naively, because I’m from a sheltered background, a normal working family.”

Describing those who raped her in South Yorkshire as “Pakistani males”, the victim revealed the desperate measures her family went to in a bid to rescue her.

“I was actually locked in her property for 10 weeks - the police knew where I were. They called the police over 200 times,” she revealed.

"They did nothing,” she explained of the authorities' response, revealing that at one point, her own father was arrested as he attempted to save her from a property she was held in.

Elon Musk has 'amplified and gotten victims' voices heard', says Rotherham survivor

When asked who should take responsibility for the failings to bring the gangs to justice, she admitted: "MPs, police at the time, council officials - the NHS as well. People were going there as well and having multiple abortions.

"Just anybody who turned a blind eye," she admitted.

Her comments came just moments before Labour voted down Conservative attempts to hold a national inquiry.

MPs in the Commons voted 364 - 111 against holding an inquiry, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch saying that failing to back a probe would fuel concerns about a "cover-up" ahead of the vote.

The vote follows tech mogul Elon Musk's recent calls for a national inquiry on social media platform X.

Targeting a number of Labour MPs including safeguarding minister Jess Phillips with abusive online comments, Musk suggested Starmer was complicit if he refused a national inquiry.

The comments were met with condemnation by the Labour leader, with the PM labelling the comments "lies".

Her comments follow a number of other recent public inquiries - including the Horizon Post Office scandal.

"I'm not begrudging those people from the Post Office scandal, but why aren't we have one as well? We deserve that," she clarified.

"It's been estimated that there's 250,000 victims across this country. Don't we deserve at least to know is how we can stop it?"