Kemi Badenoch has called for a national inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”, despite multiple recent reports into child sexual abuse.

The Conservative Party leader made the call in a post to X yesterday, arguing that “2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice”.

Responding to Mrs Badenoch, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.

Led by Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.

In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt “frustrated” that none of the probe’s 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion.

Alexis Jay OBE on August 26th 2014 at Rotherham New York Stadium. She led an independent investigation into child abuse in Rotherham, South Yorkshire between 1997 and 2007, finding that at least 1,400 children had been victims of abuse.

She said: “It’s a difficult subject matter, but it is essential that there’s some public understanding of it.

“But 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.”

Prof Jay also previously led the separate Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham, also known as the Jay Report.

Seven men were convicted last year of a string of sex offences against two teenage girls in the South Yorkshire town.

The prosecution follows a five year investigation by officers from the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, which is the UK’s biggest investigation into child abuse.

It was set up in the wake of the Jay Report, which sent a shockwave across the nation in 2014 when it found that at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in the town between 1997 and 2013.

It prompted a swathe of resignations and further inquiries after it emerged how police, social workers and other agencies had done little to tackle the issue.

Operation Stovewood, which achieved more than 200 arrests and 33 convictions, has now been passed to South Yorkshire Police.

Multiple inquiries held into Rotherham grooming scandal