Grooming gangs: Sir Keir Starmer unable to name locations of four local inquiries

Since then, little detail has arisen about the location of the inquiries, while the barrister, Tom Crowther KC, who was initially tasked with helping develop them, revealed he asked a Home Office official "do you still want me?", after his role appeared to be watered down.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pushed Sir Keir for more details, accusing Labour of a “cover-up”.

Sir Keir said: “This is obviously a serious issue. I oversaw the first grooming gang prosecution which was in Rochdale more than a decade ago.

“There is a contrast here because the Leader of the Opposition when she was minister for children, women and equalities, never raised this issue in the House in three years.”

He added: “My position is absolutely clear. Where there’s evidence then police should investigate and there should be appropriate prosecutions. That’s route number one.

“Route number two, we should implement existing recommendations which did expose what went wrong. They weren’t implemented by the last government, they’re being implemented by this Government.

“We are providing for local inquiries, we are investing more on delivering truth and justice for victims than the party opposite did in 14 long years.”

However, Sir Keir failed to answer when quizzed about the location of the inquiries other than Oldham Council.

The Tory leader questioned whether the Prime Minister was “dragging his heels” on local inquiries into grooming gangs because he “doesn’t want Labour cover-ups exposed”.

She said: “He cannot name a single place because nothing is happening.”

Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has long campaigned for an inquiry in Bradford, which has seen numerous men arrested for child sexual exploitation and grooming crimes.

However, Bradford Council has rebuffed his calls, saying it is “unlikely to provide us with any new learning that would better protect children from being abused”.

After PMQs, Mr Moore told The Yorkshire Post: “In February, a brave group victims and a leading child abuse lawyer wrote to the Home Secretary warning her that the rape gangs scandal across the Bradford District ‘is likely to be one of the most significant crisis of its kind in the UK’.

“Yet to date, no progress has been made and we remain in a dreadful deadlock:

“Overwhelming, victim-led support for a full inquiry but a Council completely unwilling to commission one.

“The government must act where Bradford Council will not, use their statutory powers, and give victims in Keighley and Bradford the full inquiry they’ve waited almost two decades for.”

Phillipa Hubbard, of the Bradford District Safeguarding Children Partnership, previously ruled out an inquiry.

“Like many local authorities up and down the country, we know that agencies in our district have made mistakes in the past,” she explained, referencing a review carried out in the area in 2021.

“But the view of our partnership remains that a public inquiry would cost a huge amount of money, use precious officer time, and is unlikely to provide us with any new learning that would better protect children from being abused,” she added.