New grooming gangs inquiry would delay action on child abuse, inquiry chair tells BBC

Victims "clearly want action" and do not need a new national inquiry into grooming gangs, the woman who led a seven-year probe into child sexual abuse has said.

Prof Alexis Jay told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "people should get on with" implementing her reforms and "locally people need to step up to the mark and do the things that have been recommended".

"We've had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions - especially for the victims and survivors who've had the courage to come forward," she said.

The Conservatives and Reform UK have called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs after the subject came under the spotlight, in part due to interventions on social media from Elon Musk.

But asked if a new national inquiry would hinder the implementation of her recommendations, Prof Jay said: "It would certainly cause delays."

The Labour government has rejected calls for a new national inquiry, saying it will enact the reforms set out by the Jay Review.

Prof Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), said the row over calls for a new national probe into grooming gangs was "distracting from the issues".

She said she was "very unhappy with the politicisation of child sexual exploitation" done in a "very uninformed way".

However Prof Jay added that the row may have given "some kind of impetus to move forward" after the home secretary announced action on "three key recommendations" on Monday.

Prof Jay declined to answer when asked whether she felt billionaire Musk knew what was going on in Oldham, where the council has been refused a public inquiry.

But she said: "I have heard very little in the last few days about the appalling and lifelong effects that child sexual abuse can have on people.

"I am pleased that the subject matter and the inquiry recommendations are finally getting the attention they deserve but this is definitely not the way I would have chosen for it to happen, but it has had the effect of moving on the agenda."

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year.

The proposal was one of 20 recommendations made by Prof Jay following her seven-year inquiry into child sexual abuse, which concluded in 2022.

Cooper said the change would be added to the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.

Alex Davies-Jones, the government's minister for victims and violence against women and girls, said a date had not been fixed for when all 20 recommendations of the Jay Review will be implemented.

She told BBC Breakfast: "We have been in government for six months - the previous government had years to implement these recommendations and sat on their hands instead of actually acting."

The Conservatives' shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has called for a national inquiry and said "what we've learnt more recently is the sheer scale of what is happening".

"The Jay Review, for example, looked at six towns. We now suspect at least 50 towns have had grooming gangs of this kind," he told BBC Breakfast.

"It's right we have a full national inquiry so we can get to the truth, we can ensure the victims have justice, that we can try to prevent other vulnerable young girls from being in this position again, and the frankly cowardly officials and councillors who have covered this up can also be brought to justice."

Asked whether the Conservatives had done enough to tackle the issue in government, Jenrick said "more needs to be done".

He said he had "long advocated for a full-life sentence if you are a grooming gang perpetrator".

"This is one of the most appalling racially aggravated crimes in our country's history. It must be taken more seriously by everyone," he added.

On the Today programme, Jenrick was questioned about his previous claim of a link between grooming gangs and "importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures who possess medieval attitudes towards women".

Jenrick said British-Pakistani men were "over-represented as members of these rape gangs".

Asked if he was saying people from Pakistan have a medieval culture, he replied: "I think some people who come from that country do - I'm not saying everybody."

Prof Jay's inquiry noted that "many of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of men from minority ethnic communities" but a lack of data means it is "impossible to know whether any particular ethnic group is over-represented as perpetrators of child sexual exploitation by networks".

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party would be prepared to set up an unofficial inquiry into grooming gangs if the government did not act within "a few weeks".

He told LBC radio he could raise the money to fund an inquiry, although it would not have legal powers to compel witnesses to attend.

"I will have no difficulty in raising the money to do this, whatsoever. We'll appoint independent ex-judges and experts," Farage said.

The IICSA national inquiry was set up in 2015 and carried out 15 investigations, including into grooming gangs and abuse in schools and church settings.

Prof Jay had previously led a landmark local inquiry into widescale abuse in Rotherham, where it was estimated 1,400 children were exploited between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage.

The IICSA's final report was published in 2022 and set out 20 recommendations it said were necessary to reduce child suffering.

They included setting up a national child protection authority, implementing tighter controls on who can work with vulnerable children, legislating to force tech firms to take stronger action over online abuse material and making not reporting abuse a criminal offence.

On Monday, the home secretary said she was announcing action on three recommendations. They included the new offence to prosecute those who fail to report child sexual abuse; that grooming would become an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences, and that the government would "overhaul" the information and evidence gathered on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Musk - the world's richest man and an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump - has faced criticism after he called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a "rape genocide apologist".

His remarks came after Phillips rejected a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.

She instead instructed Oldham Council in October to launch its own local inquiry into historic child sexual abuse in the town, similar to inquiries set up in Rochdale and Telford.

Musk has also accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being "complicit in the rape of Britain" and suggested Sir Keir had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of public prosecutions.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Sir Keir defended his record in his former role, saying when he left "we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record".

He said he enjoyed robust debate but it had to be "based on facts and truth, not on lies".

The prime minister said the online debate around grooming gangs had now "crossed a line", resulting in threats against MPs, including Phillips.

Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) detective who resigned in 2012 over poor handling of abuse cases in Rochdale, said it had taken "an international spotlight on our country" to prompt the measures announced by the home secretary.

She told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that "nothing had happened in the two-and-a-half years since those recommendations were made".

Ms Oliver said she was unsure if victims wanted a new national inquiry, adding: "The question has to be, what is the public inquiry for? Who will lead it? What are the terms of reference? Are victims and survivors going to be front and central? I would also argue that we fully know what the problem is and the time is for action."

Ms Oliver also said she had spoken to victims who were "raging" about the prime minister's remarks on Monday. It comes after Sir Keir hit out at politicians "calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far-right".

Ms Oliver said victims she had spoken to felt it was "accusing anyone who is concerned about this problem of being a far-right racist".

The prime minister's spokesman later said that not all those calling for a new inquiry into child grooming are on the far-right.