Labour will attempt to stem the grooming gang backlash by announcing nationally-backed local inquiries.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will announce Government funds to back local inquiries modelled on the judge-led inquiry into grooming gangs in Telford.
She is also expected to ask police forces to reopen so-called “cold cases” relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse.
It follows calls for a national inquiry from the Conservatives, Reform UK, and some Labour MPs into the sexual abuse of girls and young women by gangs in several areas of the country.
In a Commons statement on Thursday afternoon, Ms Cooper is also expected to announce a national audit led by Baroness Casey to establish the current scale of grooming.
It will have a budget of £10 million and will focus on the “cultural drivers” and ethnicity of the gangs.
Ms Cooper’s announcement came as it emerged that she was threatened with legal action by Maggie Oliver, the police whistleblower in the Rochdale child grooming scandal, unless she took “urgent steps to allay widespread public concern” over gangs sexually exploiting children.
Cooper put ‘on notice’
Ms Oliver said she had put Ms Cooper “on notice” that she would seek a judicial review in the High Court unless the Home Secretary published a timetable for implementing all 20 recommendations by the Alexis Jay independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA).
Three Labour MPs publicly expressed support for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs – Dan Carden, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, and Rochdale MP Paul Waugh.
Other senior Labour figures, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, have also said they would support a limited new inquiry.
The controversy was fuelled by Elon Musk who attacked Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Cooper with accusations that they had failed to get a grip on the grooming and sexual abuse of young girls.
Ms Champion today tweeted to say that it “looks like the Government is accepting my five point plan to prevent child abuse”.