Starmer U-turns on grooming gangs: PM orders statutory inquiry after Casey report
14 June 2025, 18:27 | Updated: 14 June 2025, 19:51
Sir Keir Starmer will launch a statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal after resisting calls for months to implement a full national probe.
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The Prime Minister said he accepted Baroness Louise Casey's recommendation for an investigation after reading "every single word" of her independent report into child sexual exploitation.
The Government has for months held off launching a statutory probe, saying its focus was on implementing Professor Alexis Jay's recommendations already from a previous seven-year national inquiry.
Professor Jay's report found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.
But speaking to reporters travelling with him on his visit to Canada, the Prime Minister said: "From the start I have always said that we should implement the recommendations we have got because we have got many other recommendations.
"I think there are 200 when you take all of the reviews that have gone on at every level and we have got to get on with implementing them.
"I have never said we should not look again at any issue. I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. That's why I asked Louise Casey who I hugely respect to do an audit.
"Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on.
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"She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be 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.
"I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me and having read her report, I respect her in any event. I shall now implement her recommendations."
Asked when it would be launched, Sir Keir said the inquiry would be implemented under the Inquiries Act, which will take "a bit of time to sort out" and would be done in "an orderly way".
The issue of grooming gangs was thrown back into the spotlight after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his X social media platform to launch a barrage of attacks on Prime Minister Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
It followed the Government's decision to decline a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has repeatedly attacked Sir Keir over his resistance to another national probe, said the Prime Minister had to be "led by the nose to make the correct decision".
"Keir Starmer doesn't know what he thinks unless an official report has told him so," she said.
"Just like he dismissed concerns about the winter fuel payment and then had to U-turn, just like he needed the Supreme Court to tell him what a woman is, he had to be led by the nose to make the correct decision here.
"I've been repeatedly calling for a full National Inquiry since January. It's about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months.
"But this must not be the end of the matter. There are many, many more questions that need answering to ensure this inquiry is done properly and quickly.
"Many survivors of the grooming gangs will be relieved that this is finally happening, but they need a resolution soon not in several years' time. Justice delayed is justice denied."
Speaking to Andrew Peach on LBC News, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion has welcomed the statutory inquiry into grooming gangs.
She says she’s concerned the issue is going to get "much, much bigger" as the early stages of abuse and recruitment appear to have shifted online.
The added that it is important that all parts of the country are aware this could be a local issue for them, and they could learn from Rotherham’s approach.
“We still haven't seen justice for all of these brave victims and survivors. And I just really hope that this inquiry will look at the specific form of child abuse, make sure that every statutory agency knows it, recognises it, prevents it and prosecutes if needs be, and then all of us can move on from this," she said.
"What I don't want is for people just to say it's not happening in my town and then the inquiry doesn't cover their town. That would, for me, immediately mean that there needs to be a deep dive to make sure it's not going on in their town.
"Because too many people, and I've heard it in too many places, say, oh, we don't want to be another Rotherham. We're not going to look. Well, actually, Rotherham's dealt with the issue and we've been really robust in changing our practises.
"I can't tell you that it's not going to happen, that it's not still happening. But at least we know what it is and at least we know how to challenge it. Now, other places can't say that."
“And the thing that I really hope we'll start doing is it's not, of course, just people of Pakistani heritage, but there are specific groups carrying out this specific method of child abuse. And one of the big concerns I've got is from the time when I first started finding out about it, a lot of the early stages of the abuse and recruitment have shifted online, which to me means the problem is going to be much, much bigger than probably any of us have processed.”
