Kemi Badenoch calls for national inquiry into ‘rape gangs’
public mediaConservative leader Kemi Badenock has called for a full national public inquiry into Britain’s “rape gang scandal”.
It comes after Home Office Minister Jesse Phillips rejected a request from Oldham Council for a government-led inquiry into the history of child sexual exploitation, saying it should be a parliamentary inquiry.
Her decision, which was reported in October by British news on Wednesday, was later reported by Elon Musk on his social media platform X and by several senior Conservative Party figures.
Shadow Home Office minister Chris Philp told the BBC it was time for a national inquiry, which would have the power to “force witnesses to come forward” to “get the truth”.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
A Labor spokesman said: “The Home Office supports the police investigation and independent inquiry to deliver justice for the victims.
“This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so these crimes are properly reported and investigated.”
“Trials have been held across the country in recent years without anyone in authority joining them,” Badenock posted on
There have been numerous investigations into the systematic rape of young women by organized crime gangs in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.
The sexual abuse of young girls by grooming gangs has fueled a series of far-right campaigns that have focused on cases of mass abuse, mainly by men of Pakistani origin.
An investigation into abuse in Rotherham found 1,400 children, mostly British-Pakistani men, were sexually abused over 16 years.
A Telford inquiry has found that up to 1,000 girls were abused over 40 years and that some cases were not investigated due to “racial tensions”.
this Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA)A final report is due in 2022, combining several of these investigations with its own.
Professor Alexis Jay, who is leading the inquiry, said in November she was “frustrated” that more than two years later none of the inquiry’s 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented.
She said: “This is a difficult subject but it is vital that the public has some understanding of it.
“But we can only do what we can to urge the government to consider the implementation of all this.
“It doesn’t need more consultation, it doesn’t need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done.”
Philp told Radio 4’s World at One program He backed calls from Oldham Council for a government-led inquiry, despite the previous Conservative government rejecting a similar request from Oldham councilors in 2022.
But, he added, “rape gangs” were “a bigger problem than Oldham”.
Asked why the Conservative government had not launched a national public inquiry into the gangs, Philp referred to the IICSA but added, “I don’t think it has investigated the subject as comprehensively as it should, frankly”.
Philp said: “We need a proper national investigation to look into all of these issues in all the towns affected. I’m afraid it’s 15 to 25 different towns involving thousands of victims.”
He believes questions about the conduct of local authorities, police and social care need to be answered nationally. Philp also did not rule out an investigation into the role of Sir Keir Starmer, who served as attorney general from 2008 to 2013.
He said the inquiry should examine why perpetrators of “grooming and rape gangs” appeared to be “overwhelmingly of South Asian background”.
In a post on and the person charged.
Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Reform Party, said in response to Badenock’s questions: “Word is cheap. The Conservatives have been in government for 14 years and can launch an inquiry.”
“The agency failed the victims of sting rings at every level.”
Oldham query
In 2022, an independent investigation by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority found that vulnerable children in Oldham were sexually exploited due to “serious failings” by police and councils.
But the report has been criticized for its limited scope, focusing mainly on cases between 2011 and 2014.
In July, Oldham Council, led by a Labor minority government, The Home Office is being asked to conduct a fuller investigation into historical abuses in the area.
Phillips rejected the request, pointing out that investigations carried out by Rotherham and Telford councils had greater legitimacy because they were commissioned and delivered locally.
In a letter to the committee, the safeguarding minister said she recognized the “power of emotion” but believed “Oldham Council alone made the decision to commission an inquiry into local child sexual exploitation, rather than government intervention”.
Conservative Oldham councilor Lewis Quigg said the decision was “not good enough”.
A spokesman for Oldham Council said: “Survivors are at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation.
“Whatever happens with future investigations, we assure them that their wishes will be paramount and we will not break that promise.”
On Day X, Musk accused Sir Keir of failing to properly prosecute “rape gangs” when he was prosecutor general.
But the tech billionaire himself has been accused of “rewriting history” by Nazir Afzal, who Sir Keir appointed as the special prosecutor on child abuse and sexual exploitation and oversaw an investigation into Numerous convictions for other grooming gangs.
Mr Azfar said: “Under Starmer’s leadership we have finally addressed these previously mishandled abuses.”
Musk, who was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead the new Department of Government Effectiveness, also criticized Phillips, saying she “should be in jail” for her response to the Oldham Commission.
