Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a full national public inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”.
It comes after Home Office minister Jess Phillips rejected Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation – saying the council should lead it instead.
Shadow Home Office minister Chris Philp told the BBC the time had come for a national inquiry, with powers to “compel witnesses to come forward”, to get “to the truth”.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
The sexual abuse of young girls by grooming gangs has fuelled a number of far-right campaigns which have focused on cases of large-scale abuse carried out mainly by men of Pakistani descent.
An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham found 1,400 children had been sexually abused over a 16-year period, predominantly by British Pakistani men.
An investigation in Telford found that up to 1,000 girls had been abused over 40 years – and that some cases had not been investigated because of “nervousness about race”.
In Oldham, an inquiry was set up after rumours spread online that children were being groomed in council homes, shisha bars and by taxi drivers.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), which published its final report in 2022, knitted several of these inquiries together alongside its own investigations.
Posting on X, Badenoch said: “Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.”
Philp told Radio 4’s World at One programme he supported Oldham Council’s call for a government-led inquiry, despite the previous Conservative government rejecting a similar request from an Oldham councillor in 2022.
But, he added, “rape gangs” were “a bigger question than just Oldham”.
The government has been approached for comment.
The saga has invoked strong feelings and response from numerous parties, with calls for a national inquiry to end the abuse and ensure justice for the victims.
Source link
