Yvette Cooper today insisted local inquiries into grooming gangs in five towns will be going ahead – despite furious claims that Labour had watered down its plans.
The Home Secretary hit out at ‘party political misinformation’ as she said a ‘framework is being drawn up at the moment’ for the investigations.
The ‘victim-centred, locally-led inquiries’ – backed by £5million of funding – were first announced in January as part of a series of plans to tackle child sexual abuse.
It followed a furore over Labour snubbing Oldham Council’s request for a Whitehall-led inquiry, with ministers instead favouring a locally-led probe.
Amid growing calls for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs, Ms Cooper announced a ‘rapid audit’ into the scale of the issue across Britain.
She also promised support for new local inquiries – to be based on the work of a recent probe in Telford – in Oldham and four other pilot areas.
But questions about whether the local inquiries would go ahead arose earlier this week, with the Tories claiming the Government had backtracked on the plans.
Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, faced a backlash in the House of Commons on Tuesday for not providing an update on local reviews.
Instead, Ms Phillips told MPs that local authorities will be able to access a £5million fund to support locally-led work on grooming gangs.
‘Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally-led audits into the handling of historic cases,’ she said.
Conservative frontbencher Katie Lam said local inquiries are not good enough and now the Government is ‘watering them down even further’.
Sir Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, also hit out at the Government’s approach as ‘utterly shameful’.
The Sky News presenter added: ‘It’s so obvious that they’re not doing this because of the demographic of the people involved… largely Pakistani Muslim in background, and also in Labour-held seats and councils who would be offended by it.’
But Ms Cooper disputed the claims that Labour was watering down its approach.
Asked if all of the local investigations would take place, she told LBC: ‘Yep. We’re still going ahead. The framework is being drawn up at the moment.
‘There’s been, sadly, a lot of, I think, party political misinformation about this. What we should be doing is all working together to support victims and survivors of these really vile crimes.’
Pressed again on whether they will go ahead, the Home Secretary said : ‘Yeah, there may be more.’
She added: ‘What we’re also doing is we’re putting in place stronger measures.
‘We’re strengthening the law into these gangs and we’re also increasing police investigations, which is the most important thing of all, because, frankly, these perpetrators should be behind bars, and if you don’t get the police investigations in place, that won’t happen.
‘That is the best way to get people justice and to keep communities safe.’
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay, found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.
The seven-year probe made 20 recommendations in the final report published in 2022, as it described child sexual abuse as an ‘epidemic’ across the two nations.
The Government has knocked back calls for a new national review in favour of locally-led inquiries, saying it was focused on implementing recommendations from Prof Jay’s report.
A rapid national audit, led by Baroness Casey, looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country, is expected to report back after Easter.