A Labour MP has backed calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, urging Sir Keir Starmer to “use the full power of the state to deliver justice”.
Dan Carden, who represents Liverpool Walton, is the first Labour MP to break ranks and call for an inquiry.
Speaking to his local paper, The Liverpool Echo, Mr Carden said: “The public compassion for the victims, thousands of young British working-class girls and children is real. The public call for justice must be heeded.
“It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial or cultural issues or because victims were poor and working class.
“We must question and challenge the orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism that led to authorities failing to act. We need a new doctrine to take our multi-ethnic society into the future.”
Insisting that the issue was “not an obsession of the far-right”, he said he was speaking out as “over the decades there have been far too few Labour voices expressing clear disgust and outrage at these heinous crimes, their cover-up and the lack of action.”
Pressure has mounted on the Prime Minister to launch an inquiry specifically into grooming gangs since billionaire Elon Musk posted a slew of attacks on him over the issue at the start of the year.
The Conservatives used an attempt to block the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on Wednesday to force a vote on calls for a new inquiry, although Mr Carden did not record a vote.
Dan Carden has backed a national inquiry into grooming gangs (Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/PA)
But on Saturday, he said: “Both Keir Starmer and (safeguarding minister) Jess Phillips have strong records in this area and yet the government has failed to take the high ground. It must communicate a clear message about whose side it is on and now direct the state to implement the rule of law without fear (or) favour and deliver justice.
“The Prime Minister must use the full power of the state to deliver justice. It must continue to unflinchingly pursue the perpetrators and bring to account those in positions of authority who turned a blind eye, failed to act, or gave political cover to the gangs.”
So far, Sir Keir has resisted calls for a new inquiry, saying the Government will focus on implementing the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.
In addition to its main report, that inquiry published a 200-page supplemental report specifically on abuse by organised networks in February 2022.
Prof Jay has previously said that she would not be in favour of another inquiry, warning it would delay implementation of her recommendations.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party would launch its own inquiry if the Government failed to act (Jonathan Brady/PA)
Until Mr Carden spoke out, the only significant Labour figure to back calls for an inquiry was Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, a move Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said had added to the “immense” pressure on the Prime Minister.
Speaking at his party’s North-West regional conference on Saturday, Mr Farage reiterated his pledge that Reform would launch its own inquiry if the Government did not act by the end of January.
Describing the previous Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse as a “shotgun approach”, he said a new inquiry needed to be a “rifle shot” dealing with gangs “predominantly of Pakistani origin” preying on “young, in most cases working-class white girls”.
His speech came a day after the director of the National Police Chiefs Council’s Hydrant programme targeting sexual abuse said there was no “significant issue” with “any particular ethnicity or setting”.
Richard Fewkes said data released on Friday “reflects what you would expect to see across the country” and “people involved in grooming gangs were “predominantly white”.
New figures from the police database show that, where ethnicity data was available, 85% of “group-based” child abusers were white in the first three quarters of 2024.
The same data for the whole of 2023 showed 83% of offenders were white.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Professor Alexis Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, with further details expected to be set out in the coming weeks (James Manning/PA)
Previous inquiries into areas where grooming gangs operated have found they targeted children
Earlier on Saturday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting had warned that “irresponsible and coarse public discourse” on the issue could lead to violence against Muslims in general.
On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Professor Alexis Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, with further details expected to be set out in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, polling by More in Common suggested most people thought the Government had not done enough to tackle grooming gangs.
Some 60% of people told the pollster that the current Labour Government had not done enough, while 69% said the same about the previous Conservative administration.
More than half of the 2,011 people surveyed said they had no or not much confidence that the justice system took allegations of child sexual exploitation seriously, while 41% thought the activities of grooming gangs had been deliberately covered up.