Keir Starmer to launch grooming gangs inquiry that will make witnesses testify

[IwantToRetire]

Keir Starmer has confirmed that there will be a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs which means it will have the power to compel witnesses to testify and provide documents

The Prime Minister, who has previously resisted calls for another probe, said it was now "the right thing to do". And he confirmed it would be a statutory inquiry, which means it will have legal powers to compel witnesses to testify and produce documents. It comes as the findings of Baroness Dame Louise Casey's rapid audit into group-based child exploitation and abuse are due to be announced next week.

Mr Starmer said: "I have never said we should not look again at any issue. I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. That's why I asked Louise Casey who I hugely respect to do an audit.

"Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on. She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen."

The PM added: "I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.

"I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me and having read her report, I respect her in any event. I shall now implement her recommendations." According to a leak of Baroness Casey's review, it is said to state some victims were "institutionally ignored for fear of racism."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/keir-starmer-says-grooming-gangs-35393814

I imagined that it would be bad. How many of these “shoulder shruggers” are building up final salary pension schemes or getting gongs.

Hitting nail on the head. I wonder if Keir Starmer is learning any lessons.

Baroness Casey: "Whoever tippexed out Pakistani was inadvertently giving ammunition to the English defence league... if good people don't grasp difficult things, bad people will..."

x.com/Haggis_UK/status/1934679620743274745?t=ir3CmhMQLiPzxPRg8fa-LQ&s=19

I did a "Like" on that post and was immediately locked out of my X account for "Suspicious activity" and had to do one of those weird X Captchas to prove I am human 😵‍💫

For anyone reading this - the post is a clip of Baroness Casey being interviewed on Sky News!

How many of them were implemented? This is the first time I’ve seen a government minister sound motivated to tackle it. The tories certainly never gave a shit.

Haven’t Labour been calling anyone asking for an inquiry far right / dog whistle for last ten months?

Yes. Today was the first time I have heard a minister from any party sound motivated to tackle it. I’m not a Labour member, and definitely not a fan of KS.

Yes.

She may even be motivated but the problem is most politicians, even those with high morals and sticking to the truth, couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery!

I dont think there is anything new apart from as a posted up thread a recognition that although there have been made public one way in which women and young girls have been exploited, this is not new. And now with SM there are other ways.

And behind this is that women and girls have no status in society, and men of any group or grouping seem to be unable to stop themselves from using their group power to exploit women and girls.

And even if some instances the excuse of not wanting to be thought to be racist is used, basically because it is about having to think women and girls are worth caring about and protecting nothing happens.

That is the underlying issue.

And the horror of the ease with which exploitation happens is not just that it is women and girls, but it is women and girls who have already been let down by the system.

Newsnight was very good tonight. Baroness Casey was very very impressive, as were the two victims in the studio. Jess Phillips seemed like a broken woman. I think Starmer hung her out to dry. I don't suppose we'll ever know, but she was a shadow of her former self.

I think Jess P does care about women’s rights, but she’s staggering under the burden of massive cognitive dissonance on a number of fronts. The TRAs don’t trust her either. She was subject to an intimidation campaign in her general election campaign. I feel quite sorry for her, mostly.

I imagine that may be down to originally having to toe the Labour line on only local enquiries, and now she is being sent out to explain that they haven't made a U turn and all the rests of the double speak.

It must be a horrible tightrope to walk. Appear to nod along with the inner decision make group so as to hang on to the job you really want, and then find that in doing that you have undermined you holding the position you really wanted.

9th April 2025

We are developing a new best practice framework to support local authorities which want to undertake victim-centred local inquiries, or related work, drawing on the lessons from local independent inquiries like Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. We will publish the details next month.

Alongside this we will set out the process through which local authorities can access the £5 million national 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.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/tackling-child-sexual-abuse-and-exploitation-update

it must be so painful for Jess Phillips - she has spent an entire career in this area, and has really done SO MUCH good work

The Labour party line was always : "the Tories did an enquiry and didn't implement any of the suggestions. so we will implement them" and Jess was doing such a hard job trying to do that behind the scenes. She was integral to the whole system overhaul in Telford, moving all services to a victim focused response that will make a difference for countless future victims

I am behind any investigation into VAWG, IF the outcome is going to improve provision and safety for women
HOWEVER, if the outcome is intended to bolster racism and division and puts more money into immigration rather than frontline services for women and training for police/social services then its a joke, its prioritising other issues over and above women YET AGAIN

They do the right thing after exhausting all other options.

I have no doubt that Jess Phillips has been screwed over by her party but I find it hard to feel much sympathy when I remember her demeanour in the House of Commons in April (when the government announced they were backtracking on the 5 local enquiries and she was forced to field questions).

In every article I have ever read about Jess Phillips (and there have been many - a skill in itself perhaps) she has described herself as a) pro women and girls and b) straight talking. But when push came to shove, she turned out to be just another career politician.

So no, I reserve all my sympathies for the girls who were not only ignored but described as ‘slags’ by the very people whose job it was to help them.

On a more positive note, I’ve been very impressed by Louise Casey who, I must admit, I had expected would kick the issue back into the long grass. I imagine Keir Starmer had expected the same. But it appears that Casey took the trouble to read and listen to the evidence and then decided to do the right thing. Watch and learn, Jess Phillips, watch and learn.

I too was impressed listening to Baroness Casey. I'm glad we will no longer be hearing that bollocks stating 'overall more white men are responsible for grooming'. What a surprise the police were not recording the ethnicity accurately. We all knew it was bollocks from what we saw with our own eyes! Gaslighting and shutting down debate. It's still going on now with groups of Immigrants in areas where they are targeting children outside the school gates. Teachers and parents having to do the policing. This needs to be called out every single time.

Yes I heard good things about Baroness Casey on the radio. She doesn’t bend to Labour.

Re Jess Phillips I think this is bigger than her and Labour and Starmer take a hit regardless of what happens to her.

Until reading the Times today I had not understood how much effort the local 'establishments' (Local Authority, Councillors, Local Labour Party, Police) had put into covering up their failings. At Government level this was backed up by the Civil Service who kept repeating tired old clichés about racism. The Councils + Civil Service wanted a Judicial Review to stop Michael Gove from publishing anything.

I am very pleased that the power to compel people to answer for their actions.

I heard this morning that the national inquiry may not cover failings of government or Westminster. I think its essential for a national inquiry to understand what was happening at government level (Labour, coalition and Tories) and at senior civil service level. We need to understand the messages and direction coming from the top.

More today on woman’s hour and it’s good. Interviewing survivors too.

maggie says an inquiry would only work under her

yes that’s vital

Absolutely.

I too have no sympathy at all for the useless Jess Phillips.