The Grooming Gangs Scandal: How Did We Get Here?

Yvette Cooper announced a new national probe into grooming gangs.British grooming gangs are back in the spotlight this week after Keir Starmer announced it was launching a new national inquiry into the scandal.The prime minister’s U-turn stunned parliament as Labour spent the first half of this year refusing to listen to any calls for such a probe.The government said it was focused on still implementing the recommendations from a previousnational inquiry into child sex abuse by Professor Alexis Jay, which was published in 2022.So what’s changed? Here’s everything you need to know.Why has the government changed its mind on grooming gangs?Labour announced at the weekend it would be holding a second, national probe into the scandal.It claimed to be acting on the recommendations of Baroness Louise Casey, who has just published an independent review into child sexual exploitation.Home secretary Yvette Cooper said the audit was “damning”, and proved not enough action has been taken to protect victims in the 15 years since the scandal was uncovered.Casey also said agencies looking into the scandal had tried to avoid mentioning the ethnicity of the suspects, even though there was “clear evidence of over-representation” of Asian and Pakistani men.As well as launching a new inquiry, Cooper promised to initiate the “biggest programme of work ever” to look into the gangs and start recording ethnicity data so the country can “face up to the facts on exploitation and abuse”. Why are some people still frustrated?Labour’s U-turn came after months of anger towards the government over its decision not to hold a fresh national inquiry.Former Tory prime minister Liz Truss, Donald Trump’s then-closest adviser Elon Musk and then the Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch all attacked ministers over the decision.Prime minister Keir Starmer accused his Tory opponents of jumping on a “far-right bandwagon” at the time, and claimed they had not taken enough action themselves when in power.The Conservatives are now calling for an apology from the government over that claim.Badenoch has also insisted the topic should not be politicised – but still held a press conference about the government’s U-turn on Tuesday.It’s worth remembering that MPs actually voted against a Tory proposal to launch a national inquiry in January.Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch (R) hosts a press conference following the announcement on a national inquiry into grooming gangs, on June 17, 2025 in London, England. Just why did the UK – and the US – start talking about the scandal again this year?It became an international issue when Musk began tweeting about it incessantly.It seemed to come to his attention after GB News reported that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips had rejected Oldham council’s request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation, saying such a probe should be held locally.Musk claimed on X: “The real reason she’s refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer (head of the CPS at the time).”He then proceeded to post about the topic almost non-stop on his X account, despite being corrected by other users and accused of spreading misinformation.Musk accused Starmer of not prosecuting enough abusers when he was director of public prosecutions, and called safeguarding minister Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” who should be in jail.Why did Musk’s accusations take off?Some of the government’s critics claim Jay’s inquiry was not thorough enough, and that another, shorter one should look into a supposed “racial or cultural motivation” behind the abuse.Badenoch said on X: “The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.“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.”She told Starmer that the public will start to “worry about a cover-up” if Labour continue to resist the calls for another probe.Reform leader Nigel Farage and Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick said Jay’s report did not prioritise on-street grooming in towns like Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford.However, Jay herself told the media no further investigation is required.She said: “We’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions and especially for those victims and survivors who’ve had the courage to come forward, and they clearly want action.“We have set out what action is required and people should just get on with it. Locally and nationally.”Recap:When did the scandal start?The scandal first came to light when Yorkshire MP Ann Cryer was approached by seven mothers from a town outside of Bradford in 2003.The women told her they were struggling to get through to the authorities about their young daughters, whom they said needed to be protected from their British-Pakistani “boyfriends”.The MP then went head-to-head with local services and police, and began to campaign against underage marriage.The issue grew as more media outlets reported on it – and the far-right British National Party began to protest over the scandal.How was Keir Starmer involved at the time? Keir Starmer became the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in 2008, although his team only became aware of the scandal two years later when The Times’ Andrew Norfolk investigated grooming gangs around Manchester.The first offenders linked to the crimes were convicted in 2012 although many other cases never made it to trial.Earlier this year, the PM faced accusations over his performance as DPP on this issue. Starmer told the press in January that when he left office “we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record”.Norfolk also stood up for Starmer, telling The Times: “I want to put the record straight on this. It was Starmer who changed the rules to make more prosecutions possible.“That happened and there was a huge increase in convictions.”Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended his record as DPP on Monday.When did the first inquiries begin?A report into grooming gangs in Rotherham was released in 2014, looking into the sexual exploitation of children in the town between 1997 and 2013.Led by Professor Jay, the probe pointed to the failure of the town council and South Yorkshire police for regarding “many child victims with contempt”.The report also found “the majority of perpetrators were described as Asian by victims,” and that several council staff “described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist.”The report concluded: “No one knows the true scale of the child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham over the years. Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the full inquiry period, from 1997 to 2013.” The following year, Jay started to investigate historic claims of child sex abuse on a wider scale, examining Westminster, the BBC and NHS in Britain’s most complicated and wide-reaching statutory inquiry ever.She chaired the £200m Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, a seven year inquiry into rape gangs, grooming from foster parents, church leaders and care home staff.Her final 2022 report included a list of 20 recommendations to transform the way child abuse is handled in the UK – but none of them have yet been implemented.Jay recently told the BBC that the Tory government was “weak” for not putting these suggestions into action when they first came out.Labour spent the first six months of the year saying now is the time for action rather than for another inquiry, pledging to implement the recommendations in full.Related...Elon Musk Corrected By X's Community Notes Over His Latest Attempt To Smear UK MPsExclusive: Lib Dems Use Musk's 'Snivelling Cretin' Jibe At Ed Davey To Raise Election FundsTrump Privately Complains Elon Musk 'Is Around A Lot': Report

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