Ministers accused of making ‘almost no progress’ on grooming gangs inquiry

The Government has been accused of making “almost no progress” on plans to investigate grooming gangs as ministers are recruiting a chairperson to lead a national inquiry.

Home Office minister Jess Phillips told MPs the appointment process was in its “final stages” and a panel of survivors and victims would be part of the final approval after Sir Keir Starmer committed to a fresh national inquiry in June.

The Government had previously resisted pressure to implement the measure but then accepted it as a recommendation made in Baroness Louise Casey’s review looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country.

Ms Phillips said she and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had met prospective candidates for the position over the summer.

She told the Commons: “The chair must have credibility and experience to command the confidence of victims and survivors as well as the wider public. And meaningful engagement with victims and survivors is paramount.

“To support this, a dedicated panel of victims and survivors has been established which will contribute to that chair selection process.

“This is a critical milestone, and once an appointment is confirmed, the House will be updated at the earliest opportunity.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused the Government of having to be “dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way” on calls for a national inquiry, with “almost no progress” having been made since it was announced.

“My office has been in contact with survivors in Oldham today, and they have heard nothing,” Mr Philp said.

“Now we discover no chair has been appointed, there are no terms of reference, there is no news on towns like Oldham or Bradford, nothing of substance at all.

“This is just not good enough.”

He added: “Will she confirm, perhaps most importantly, that this inquiry will look at those in authority, police, CPS, local councils, who deliberately covered this up because those people were more interested in appeasing certain minority communities than they were in protecting young girls?”

Ms Phillips said: “It takes time to make sure that this process is completely victim-centred.”

The safeguarding minister said there had been “scaremongering” that the inquiry would not cover government officials or those who covered up exploitation, which she described as “absolute nonsense”.

“Let me say, and be very clear, that it will cover what it needs to cover, to uncover the truth, and no stone will be left unturned,” Ms Phillips said.

“If people are found by our court system to have undermined and have disgraced public office then, of course, they should be sent to prison.”

Conservative former minister Esther McVey said the Government was conducting a “master class in procrastination”, as she pressed for a date by which the inquiry will conclude.

Ms Phillips replied: “The victims of this crime have sat in front of me with tears in their eyes and said they hate it when we shout at each other about these things, and they wish we would work together.”

She later added that police were involved in the perpetration of these crimes, as well as the cover-ups.

“I would be lying if I said that over the years, I have not met girls who talk to me about how police were part of the perpetration, not just the cover-up, and we need to make sure that victims can come and give that testimony,” Ms Phillips said.

Ministers have faced pressure after the wait for recommendations to be implemented from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) hit the headlines in January.

Billionaire X owner Elon Musk was among the critics of the UK’s handling of child grooming scandals.

The inquiry made 20 recommendations in 2022 after a seven-year investigation found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.

The probe led by Professor Alexis Jay also described child sexual abuse as an “epidemic” across the two nations.

In January, the Government committed to at least five local inquiries into grooming gangs and for police forces to reopen cold case investigations, and launched the rapid audit by Baroness Casey who published her findings in June.

Ms Phillips told MPs on Tuesday that 1,273 cases have been identified for formal review and a new national policing operation has found 216 “highest priority” cases that involve an allegation of rape “which are being accelerated as a matter of urgency”.