Exclusive:Grooming gangs inquiry would not exist without brave Bradford survivor, Kemi Badenoch says
The national grooming gangs inquiry would not have been set up without brave Bradford survivor Fiona Goddard, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Conservative leader told The Yorkshire Post that without Ms Goddard’s “insight and context” Sir Keir Starmer would not have announced the statutory inquiry.
She said: “Fiona is an extremely brave woman because she did something that most people cannot do - I’m not sure I would have done it in her circumstances - and that is waive her anonymity.”
Ms Goddard has spoken to this paper about the ongoing trauma of being groomed and sexually abused by gangs of men while living in a care home in Bradford from 2008.
In 2019, nine people were found guilty of offences including rape and child prostitution. Ms Goddard, 32, said this was “enabled” by social services and the police.
She has consistently pushed for Bradford to be included in the inquiry, which Sir Keir Starmer announced after initially commissioning Baroness Louise Casey to carry out a rapid audit.
Ms Goddard explained she felt “very supported” by the Conservatives, who she said put victims at the heart of their policy.
Mrs Badenoch said: “Without Fiona, there would be no national grooming inquiry because she was the one that gave me quite a lot of insight and context.
“It’s a privilege to know her. She is someone who has had a difficult life, but every single step has been bravery.
“We have pushed for this inquiry, I am disappointed in the way Labour are carrying it out.”
In December, it was announced that former children’s commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield will lead the three-year inquiry with a budget of £65m.
This will comprise of a series of targeted local investigations into the sexual exploitation of girls by grooming gangs, with pressure for the Bradford district to be included.
Baroness Longfield, who is based in Ilkley and has spent much of her career investigating childhood inequalities, will be aware of the high number of cases in Bradford and Keighley.
She was previously brought in to help the children’s services at the local authority over a different matter.
Mrs Badenoch said: “They are so slow, the terms of reference are not clear - I’ve said that they need to look where ethnicity and culture have an impact.”
The Tory leader said she had no regrets that the previous Conservative government had not set up a national grooming gangs inquiry.
“We thought we had done that,” she explained, “we had a child sex abuse inquiry, we were waiting for it to make rulings and recommendations on what happened.
“Instead it went so far wide that it didn’t give us the information that we needed.
“I’m not saying what we did was perfect, but we weren’t doing nothing.”