The Tories are right to call for a robust inquiry into grooming gangs but why did it fail to tackle the issue in government?
The Tories calling on the Government to adopt robust terms of reference for the national inquiry into grooming gangs has a lot of merit. Anyone serious about preventing vulnerable young girls being subjected to the vile acts of cruelty and criminality in the future would indeed “leave no stone unturned”, as Kemi Badenoch urged.
While the current Government has faltered in its attempts to deliver a reckoning on the grooming gang scandal, there’s a reason why many will see the press conference held by the Leader of the Opposition as grandstanding. A lot of the crimes happened with impunity under the watch of the previous Tory Government. Posturing now appears opportunistic and disingenuous on the part of the Tories.
Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the first Rotherham grooming gangs inquiry, which found 1,400 children were sexually abused between 1997 and 2013, and more recently the seven-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), has repeatedly criticsed the lack of action under both the Tories and now Labour. IICSA made 20 recommendations to tackle serious institutional failings that had led to an epidemic of abuse. Yet three years on none of the recommendations had been fully implemented.
However, the track record of the Tories in Government should not cloud people’s judgement as to what they are calling for. There does need to be a robust inquiry with a clear focus. And the role that ethnicity, religion and other cultural factors may have played cannot be shied away from.
The Tory party’s lack of credibility reflects why it is struggling. There needs to be a change in leadership otherwise Reform will continue to hoover up support. It already has swept up former Tory donors. And will sweep the Tories aside at the polls, unless there is change in the party.