Keir Starmer did not want to hold an inquiry into grooming gangs. He did everything that he could to ignore the rape and torture of children which has scarred towns across England. Louise Casey’s audit of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse was almost certainly commissioned to get him out of a tough spot and get calls for an inquiry out of the papers.
It was only after Labour were left with absolutely no choice in the matter, damned by the scale of abuse documented in Casey’s report, that an inquiry was finally commissioned.
It should therefore be no surprise that before the inquiry has even begun, it is being undermined. Four months after Starmer bowed to pressure, the Home Office have confessed that a chair of the inquiry still hasn’t been appointed. The scope of the inquiry is yet to be determined and the first area to be reviewed remains undecided. Survivors have been left wondering if the government is preparing to let them down, again.
Survivors have been left wondering if the government is preparing to let them down, again
A delay finding a chair and discussions over scope might seem like standard government scleroticism. But anyone who has been following this issue through numerous independent inquiries will recognise the playbook. The evidence is mounting that we are headed for a whitewash.
Look at the Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation first commissioned in 2018. Despite strong evidence that Telford had been deeply impacted by grooming gangs – with seven Pakistani men jailed in 2013 for grooming girls as young as 13 – the Labour run council went to great lengths to take no action. In 2016, after Lucy Allan first called for an inquiry, council officials including Shaun Davies (who has since been elected as a Labour MP) wrote to the council claiming the investigation was not ‘necessary.’
When the council finally bowed to pressure two years later – after a Sunday mirror investigation found up to 1,000 girls had been abused – they made no effort to progress the inquiry. It took over a year for them to even appoint a chair. Even longer was spent hashing out scope as the council dithered and delayed on submitting evidence. The result: a report which was not published until 2022 and which held no figures from public life accountable for the cover up.
Or look at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) commissioned in 2015 in the wake of Jimmy Saville and several other high-profile cases of organised and persistent sexual abuse. This was the report Starmer tried to hide behind earlier this year. Claiming there had already been an inquiry. That there was nothing new left to find out.
But IICSA, which took over seven years to publish, was also compromised beyond utility. The inquiry burned through four different chairs, each setting back progress, and wasted years debating scope. Survivors were promised that IICSA would investigate grooming gangs. Ultimately, the £186 million inquiry, deliberately ignored towns like Rotherham, Oldham, Oxford, and Oldham where grooming was known to have taken place (claiming that other inquiries had covered these areas), and published just one chapter on child sexual exploitation by organised networks.
Many fear that the government hope to muddy the latest inquiry in much the same way. According to one source, there is already significant pressure to broaden the scope of the inquiry beyond street-based grooming gangs, seeking to include other types of child sexual abuse. One anonymous source recently told the Guardian ‘We could end up with another sprawling inquiry like IICSA’s seven-year investigation, which was too vague.’
Public figures have repeatedly refused to approach grooming gangs with the sense of urgency they require. Officials seem motivated more by a desire to quell public outrage, than to take action on behalf of the women and girls impacted. There has never been a statutory inquiry with the power to question those involved with the cover up and make arrests where necessary.
Many campaigners and survivors have spent decades tirelessly campaigning for justice. But at times, progress on this issue can feel dependent on social media flare ups, the intervention of Elon Musk, or media pressure. It is only when demands for a reckoning are deafening that public officials are prepared to act.
In January, Labour was forced into action. But now much of the media has moved away from the issue, progress has stalled. It is unacceptable that nothing has happened in the four months since this inquiry was commissioned. It would be unforgivable to widen the inquiry to all forms of child sexual abuse, and in the process to tackle none of it. This is the first inquiry commissioned with statutory powers. It cannot be allowed to stall.
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