Why is Sir Keir Starmer not giving clear answers on inquiries into grooming gangs - Jayne Dowle

As much as Starmer might wish it would, the subject of grooming gangs is not going to go away. Only last week, a harrowing Channel 4 documentary, Groomed, revealed disturbing institutional failures to protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society, young girls.

The official line all too often seems to be that these girls brought on their misery themselves, swayed by promises of money, treats and mobile phones to give their bodies to nefarious men.

It’s a shameful stain on our country. And sadly, one that gives fuel to those who will make political capital out of the fact that many of these grooming gangs are dominated by men of Pakistani Muslim heritage. The ignorant will draw their own misguided conclusions, but a new inquiry, or series of inquiries, would at least furnish the public with a truer picture than the one which prejudice and conjecture conjures up. As Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of the grass-roots movement Blue Labour, has told reporters: “The decades-long abuse of young girls and its cover-up is a sickness that must be exorcised from the body politic.”

Many of the girls featured in the Channel 4 documentary were in care, attempting to survive in badly-regulated children’s homes, at risk of falling under the influence of organised predatory male networks which passed them around like pieces of meat to be abused, raped, tortured and abducted.

As a father, and a lawyer, does Starmer not see why decent people, of all faiths and backgrounds, remain extremely disturbed by this?

Starmer initially quashed demands for a new national inquiry, arguing that his government would follow the conclusions of Professor Alexis Jay’s seven-year investigation into child sexual abuse, published in 2022. This investigated wrongdoing in churches and schools, as well as by grooming gangs. Instead, he insisted that the best way to proceed on grooming gangs would be locally.

So in January, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the Home Office would put forward £5m – which sounds like a paltry sum considering the level of investigation required - towards a programme of five local enquiries.

From the sidelines, US tech billionaire and Trump sidekick Elon Musk fanned the flames; he’s accused Starmer of “complicity” in a cover-up, because as Director of Public Prosecutions, the PM was in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service, ultimately responsible for bringing charges for alleged grooming gang crimes in England and Wales.

You would think then, that given Starmer’s insistence on local inquiries and the questions asked over his own involvement, he would at least have kept up with progress – that is, if progress has been made.

However, when pressed in the House of Commons by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch last week about where the inquiries would be held, Starmer could only reply with one location in the affirmative – Oldham.

Badenoch questioned whether the Prime Minister was “dragging his heels” on local inquiries because he “doesn’t want Labour cover-ups exposed”.

And she added: “He cannot name a single place because nothing is happening.”

Cue a lot of bluster, frankly, from Starmer about how he can take credit for bringing the first prosecutions of grooming gang members to bear when he was at the CPS and some sniping about how the Conservatives ignored the Jay inquiry’s recommendations. They “sat on a shelf” under the last government, he said. We may well conclude, given the lack of Labour inaction, that they’re hardly off the shelf now.

It’s a mess, but the point is, if Starmer does not tackle the matter, it will simply get worse for him. Surely, after four months, it is not unreasonable to expect confirmation of the inquiry locations. Or at least, for the Prime Minister to ask the Home Secretary to address the House of Commons and provide an update on how the inquiries are being planned.

Or, as pressure mounts from all political corners for a new national inquiry to be held, if all five local inquiries are no longer on the table, tell us.