Kemi Badenoch has slammed Sir Keir Starmer’s “extraordinary failure of leadership” over the grooming gang scandal. The Tory leader told the Commons on Monday that the announcement of an inquiry was “another U-turn”.
She said: “After months of pressure the prime minister has finally accepted our calls for a full statutory national inquiry into the grooming gangs. “I welcome that we have finally reached this point. This is a victory for the survivors who have been calling for this for years.”
Mrs Badenoch added: “The Prime Minister’s handling of this scandal is an extraordinary failure of leadership. His judgement has once again been found wanting… he accused those of us demanding justice for the victims of this scandal as ‘jumping on a far-right bandwagon’.”
She pointed out that Labour MPs had voted three times against a national inquiry while the Liberal Democrats “didn’t bother to vote at all, asleep at the wheel”.
Baroness Louise Casey’s review into child sex abuse by grooming gangs found suspects were often “disproportionately likely” to be Asian men, the Home Secretary has said. Yvette Cooper unveiled the findings from the rapid national audit to MPs, after the Prime Minister committed to launching a national inquiry into the abuse.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said there had been a “timeline of failure from 2009 to 2025”, as she responded to Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch.
Ms Cooper said: “I don’t think she can have read this report and the seriousness of its conclusions, because it sets out a timeline of failure from 2009 to 2025.”
The Government has “unequivocally” apologised for failings which have led to grooming and child sexual abuse.
Closing her statement to the Commons on the Casey Report, Ms Cooper said she had apologised while shadow home secretary in 2022 when Dame Alexis Jay’s report was published.
Ms Cooper told MPs: “On behalf of this, and past governments, and the many public authorities who let you down, I want to reiterate an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering that you have suffered, and the failure of our country’s institutions through decades, to prevent that harm and keep you safe.
“But words are not enough. Victims and survivors need action. The reforms I’ve set out today will mean the strongest action any Government has taken to tackle child sexual exploitation, more police investigations, more arrests, a new inquiry, changes to the law to protect children, and a fundamental overhaul of how organisations work to support victims and put perpetrators behind bars.
“But none of this will work unless everyone is part of it. Unless everyone works together to keep our children safe.”