Sir Keir Starmer will be told to launch a new national inquiry into grooming gangs in a report which is set to link the scandal to men of Pakistani origin. The recommendation will come from Baroness Casey who is expected to tell the Prime Minister that white British girls were “institutionally ignored for fear of racism”.
Baroness Casey has spent months auditing the grooming gang scandal and is expected to make her findings known next week. The Government has consistently resisted calls to launch an inquiry into the issue, insisting that time would be better spent addressing the issues highlighted in previous, smaller-scale inquiries. Until now, Starmer’s government has advocated for local inquiries to be held in areas where abuse was prevalent, with five local councils launching inquiries this year.
Critics have argued that inquiries at a local level deny those leading them the powers that national inquiries would grant.
But according to The Times, Casey’s findings will recommend a national inquiry to look at the impact of the perpetrators’ race and to investigate if and how abuse was covered up.
It is understood that one of the recommendations will be to reevaluate the issuing of taxi licences, given the role they played in transporting victims to and from abusers.
The government is aware of the reports findings and could even bring forward the date of release due to fears of leaks.
Currently, the report is scheduled to be released on Wednesday following the Prime Minister’s return from a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada.
The grooming gang scandal was uncovered in 2011 following a series of investigations by The Times.
However, it rose to national prominence again earlier this year after X owner Elon Musk criticised a decision by the safeguarding minister Jess Phillip to reject calls for a national inquiry.
Yesterday, seven men were found guilty of sexually exploiting two vulnerable girls in the north of England.
Greater Manchester Police said the men were convicted after a trial involving a total of 50 offences, including rape and indecency with a child, which occurred between 2001 and 200.
Manchester Crown Court heard that the group’s two victims were “passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded”.
The prosecutor Rossano Scamardella also alleged that the girls were known to social services and that it was common knowledge that they were having sex with older South Asian men such as the defendants, as was the case in many of the cases involved in the scandal.