Britain’s far-left government has begun buckling to pressure to hold a fresh public inquiry into mainly Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs responsible for raping, pimping, and killing thousands of mostly white working-class girls in England and parts of Scotland. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper—roughly equivalent to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary—has backed five local inquiries into the gangs. However, this falls well short of the national inquiry demanded by the great majority of the British public.
The inquiries will reportedly involve five local reviews with a budget of £10 million (~$12.2 million). These will focus on understanding the cultural and ethnic factors involved in child sexual exploitation gangs. Police and prosecutors have, up to now, denied any racial or religious element to the abuse and refused to charge their offenses as hate crimes. This is despite victims making it clear they were racially abused and subjected to religious diatribes, and the accused making comments such as, “white women are only good for one thing, for people like me to f**k and use as trash.”
Cooper also announced a “rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country,” urging police forces to revisit “cold cases.”
NOT ENOUGH.
Labour initially rejected calls for a fresh inquiry after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch proposed a reasoned amendment to Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill earlier this month. Badenoch had herself been prompted to take up the issue by Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, and others reviving the issue on social media, followed by the right-leaning legacy media.
It is unlikely that those pushing for robust action on grooming gangs will be satisfied with Cooper’s concessions. Many have pointed out that grooming gangs are known to have operated in at least 50 localities, not a mere five, and that the five inquiries will not have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence. This is a particular issue in the case of the grooming gangs scandal, with reams of evidence showing the authorities failed to act against abuse or even covered it up for fear of being accused of racism.
Labour also failed to address the fact that, to date, no public official has been charged with misconduct in public office for their many failures over the course of the scandal, and deportation orders against groomers have not been executed.
