Keir Starmer announces inquiry into grooming gangs who sexually exploited girls

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday said he would back a national inquiry into grooming gangs that sexually abused thousands of girls across the country, marking a significant shift in the government's stance on the issue.

Starmer's announcement comes after Louise Casey, a former senior government official, conducted a "rapid audit" of the current scale and nature of gang-based child sexual exploitation in Britain. The audit had been commissioned in January by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper amid growing public pressure and renewed scrutiny of past failures by authorities.

Speaking to reporters, Starmer said Casey had initially believed there was no need for a new national inquiry, but changed her position after reviewing the evidence. "She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen," Starmer said. "I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation."

The issue of grooming gangs has long been a deeply sensitive and politically charged subject in the UK. The scandal, which came to light over a decade ago, exposed how gangs-many composed predominantly of Pakistani men-had systematically groomed, trafficked, and raped young white girls, often in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford.

Numerous investigations later revealed that local authorities and police had failed to act on reports of abuse for years, often out of fear of being accused of racism or stoking community tensions.

Several girls in the UK were befriended by young Muslim men and then ed on to older men who would become their boyfriends. What followed was gang rapes and several degrees of other forms of violence.

lured by Pakistani-origin men, then taken to older men who would control and manipulate them. These young girls would then be gang-raped by these men and their relatives and friends for years. The authorities also did not act when these women reported their abuse as they allegedly tried to avoid hurting cultural sensitivities in the UK.

The matter returned to the spotlight earlier this year after US tech billionaire Elon Musk accused the British government of not doing enough to address the historic and ongoing exploitation of vulnerable girls. His comments, shared widely on social media, reignited public outrage and prompted renewed calls for a comprehensive and independent inquiry.

Until now, the Labour government had resisted demands for a full statutory review, arguing that numerous local and national investigations had already been carried out.