Political reporter
Kemi Badenoch has accused the government of breaking its promise to set up five local inquiries into grooming gangs despite pledging to do so.
The Conservative leader said Sir Keir Starmer had promised £5m to fund five locally-led investigations into grooming gangs but delivered just one, in Oldham.
During Prime Ministers Questions, Badenoch suggested Sir Keir was “dragging his heels” on inquiries to shield Labour-run councils from scandal.
Sir Keir said Labour were “investing more in delivering truth and justice” for victims of grooming gangs than the Conservatives had during “14 long years” in power.
Ministers have been facing growing demands to reveal which areas are running grooming gang inquires alongside the review in Oldham, and a three-month audit of national evidence being led by government troubleshooter Baroness Louise Casey.
Earlier this month Tom Crowther, the barrister helping to develop the schemes, suggested local inquiries into grooming gangs had stalled since they were announced in January.
Crowther, who chaired the inquiry into child sex abuse in Telford, Shropshire, gave evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee at the start of April and told MPs he had asked a government official “do you still want me?”
The issue was again raised in the Commons on Monday, when Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips told MPs she expected there to be more than five local inquires.
Labour was focusing on ensuring “there is a local process of accountability that actually changes things on the ground”, Phillips told MPs.
During a heated PMQs exchange, Badenoch sought to tie grooming gang inquiries to the local elections, a series of councils and mayoral votes across England on Thursday.
The Tory leader said voters faced a choice of “chaos and cover-ups under Labour councils or better services under the Conservatives”.
Badenoch repeatedly asked Sir Keir for an update on the local inquires. When he did not respond, she said he “cannot name a single place because nothing is happening”.
She questioned whether the prime minister was “dragging his heels” on local inquiries into grooming gangs because he “doesn’t want Labour cover-ups exposed”, adding that the inquiries hadn’t started because “local authorities don’t want to investigate themselves”.
A national inquiry was needed as local probes “cannot force witnesses to appear” and “cannot force people to give evidence under oath”, Badenoch said.
Sir Keir accused Badenoch of “staying silent” on the issue in government while he “oversaw the first grooming gang prosecution” as Director of Public Prosecutions.
He told the Commons: “I was the prosecutor who brought the first case.
“On the back of that I then changed the entire approach to prosecutions, which was then lauded by the government that we were doing the right thing, and brought those prosecutions.”
In contrast to the Conservatives, Labour were “implementing existing recommendations” of the 2022 national inquiry into child sexual abuse and “providing for local inquiries”, he said.
For more than a decade there has been a series of high-profile cases where groups of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing and raping mainly white girls in the UK.
In 2022, Prof Alexis Jay published the conclusions of a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse, which investigated abuse in churches and schools, as well as by grooming gangs.
The Conservative have been calling for a second national inquiry into grooming gangs since the issue was thrust back into the spotlight by tech billionaire Elon Musk at the start of the year.
The proposal was backed by opposition MPs, as well as some Labour figures including Rotherham MP Sarah Champion alongside Labour mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.
Tracy Brabin, the Labour Mayor of West Yorkshire, has rejected calls for a local inquiry in her constituency, saying victims “want justice” not more “talking”.
“This is not a political football it’s actually people’s lives that we should put front and centre,” she said.
The Liberal Democrats have called for the the government to focus on implementing all 20 of the recommendations made by the Jay inquiry.
On Monday, party spokesperson Lisa Smart said MPs “owe it to” victims to not just “offer words of support, but to deliver justice and bring offenders to account”.
Reform UK have backed calls for a national inquiry and have previously offered to fund their own.
Party leader Nigel Farage has previously accused both Labour and Tories of “failing to bring justice to the thousands of victims across multiple decades of these horrific crimes”.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said Badenoch “appears determined to use this issue as an excuse to push her own agenda and try to make political capital”.
“A leader of a major political party who is serious about tackling sexual abuse and exploitation of girls would put the victims and their needs front and centre and offer support for action to tackle misogyny,” she added.
