Nigel Farage has fired a warning to Sir Keir Starmer over the grooming gangs national inquiry. The Reform UK leader vowed to pile pressure on the Prime Minister not to “kick this into the long grass”.
It comes after Sir Keir announced there would be a full probe into the grooming gangs scandal following months of resistance.
The U-turn was in response to a new review into the issue by Baroness Louise Casey.
The Clacton MP said: “Maybe at last we’re getting somewhere on the rape gangs. These horrendous multiple rapes by thousands of men of Pakistani origin of predominantly white, young British girls.
“I first gave that same sentence out in about 2014 to be condemned for daring to talk about this. But what’s become clearer and clearer over the years is a massive cover-up.
“Social services, police, politicians, nobody wanted to talk about this for fear of being seen to be racist.
“Now, we’ve been, as we have been since we’ve been in Parliament, once again pushing for a full inquiry. And it has to have judicial powers, otherwise you can’t call people in and hold them to account.
“My fear is that Starmer tries to tell you that he’s going to deal with the problem and actually what they might once again do is kick this into the long grass.
“We will keep as much pressure on the government as we possibly can. There may come a point when I ask people to contact their MPs as well.”
Earlier this year, the Government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.
In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far right”.
Earlier today, Sir Keir defended his record on taking action against grooming gangs and said to “compare and contrast” it with that of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Asked if he was angry that political opponents are weaponising the issue after the Conservative Party leader held a press conference this morning, he said: “Well, let’s just compare and contrast, shall we? Nearly 15 years ago, I brought the first prosecution for grooming cases, at the first time that I think it was 12 defendants had been put in the dock at the same time ever.
“I was the chief prosecutor who greenlighted that. I was the prosecutor then changed all the rules within criminal justice on prosecution in relation to child sexual abuse.
“And Theresa May, for one, noted that when I left office, as did most others.
“As I did that, I was also calling for mandatory reporting, because I felt it would make a material difference.
“I began calling for that in 2013. I then drafted the victims’ law in 2015 when I entered Parliament, which the then-government, which remind me, was a Conservative government, decided it wouldn’t take forward, which included a number of protective measures for victims.
“I’m now the Prime Minister who has passed into law mandatory reporting, who has taken forward the unique identifier for children, because I’ve always been really worried that children falling outside of school are not being picked up, and they are very vulnerable to exploitation.
“And obviously now (I have) announced this national inquiry.”