Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to make an announcement on “child sexual exploitation” this afternoon following a deluge of calls for a Public Inquiry into Britain’s grooming gangs scandal.
Cooper will be addressing the Commons at around 5.30pm today – just hours after Sir Keir Starmer spoke to reporters about the gangs at a press conference in Surrey.
GB News revealed last week that Labour had rejected repeated requests for a Home Office-led Inquiry into the gangs – sparking a bitter row over the scandal, spearheaded by Elon Musk.
And Starmer laid into “the far-right playbook of whipping up intimidation and violence” after repeated questions on Musk’s remarks this morning – prompting an outcry from Musk himself, who claimed the PM was “deeply complicit” in the abuse.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will address the Commons at around 5.30pm
PA
A Government spokesman said: “No child should ever suffer sexual abuse or exploitation and it is paramount we do more to protect vulnerable children – which is why we are working at pace across Government to drive forward real action to implement the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.
“The comprehensive independent inquiry ran for seven years and continues to work with survivors of these heinous crimes – and this government is committed to working closely with survivors and expert groups like Act on IICSA.”
The IICSA described child sexual abuse as an “epidemic” and found there were “extensive failures” in the way child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs was tackled – with police and authorities potentially downplaying the scale of abuse over concerns about negative publicity.
The scale of the scandal re-entered the public eye a few weeks ago when court transcripts showing the details of the crimes began circulating on Musk’s social media platform X.
Then, GB News revealed how Labour’s Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips had told authorities in Oldham to “take their own approach” rather than commit to a full-scale national inquiry.
More to follow…