Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a comprehensive national public inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal.”
This follows Home Office minister Jess Phillips’ rejection of Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, suggesting instead that the council should lead the investigation.
Phillips’ decision, made in October, was reported by GB News on Wednesday and subsequently highlighted by Elon Musk on his social media platform X, as well as several senior Tories.
Shadow Home Office minister Chris Philp told the BBC that the time had come for a national inquiry with the authority to “compel witnesses to come forward” and uncover “the truth.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
A Labour spokesperson stated: “The Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to achieve truth and justice for victims. This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated.”
Posting on X, Badenoch said: “Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years, but no one in authority has connected the dots. 2025 must be the year that victims start to get justice.”
There have been numerous investigations into the systematic rape of young women by organized gangs, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale, and Bristol.
The sexual abuse of young girls by grooming gangs has fueled several far-right campaigns, focusing on cases of large-scale abuse primarily carried out by men of Pakistani descent.
An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham found that 1,400 children had been sexually abused over a 16-year period, predominantly by British Pakistani men.
An investigation in Telford revealed that up to 1,000 girls had been abused over 40 years, with some cases not being investigated due to “nervousness about race.”
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), which published its final report in 2022, combined several of these inquiries with its own investigations.
Professor Alexis Jay, who led the inquiry, expressed frustration in November that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.
She said: “It’s a difficult subject matter, but it is essential that there’s some public understanding of it. We can only do what we can to press the government to look at the delivery of all of this. It doesn’t need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done.”
