Louise Casey’s decision to recommend a national inquiry into grooming gangs has forced Keir Starmer’s hand on an issue that has haunted the Labour party for decades.
The failings of UK institutions to protect young girls from widespread abuse by gangs of men will remain high on the political agenda for another three years.
A 197-page report produced by Lady Casey has called for wholesale changes to rape laws; requested that criminal convictions applied to abuse victims be quashed; and suggested that five existing local inquiries into grooming gangs be coordinated by an independent commission with full statutory inquiry powers.
But it is the issue of the ethnicity of the perpetrators that will resonate as the most explosive political issue arising from its pages. Casey could only find data from three forces, but, using publicly available material from the police and reports, concluded that suspects were disproportionately likely to be Asian men.
The impression remains that Casey’s conclusion – that a three-year, time-limited national inquiry must be launched – has caught the prime minister on the hop. Once again, he was forced into what appears to be a damaging U-turn.
Some Labour MPs have said that a prime minister more attuned to his “red wall” backbenchers would have ordered an inquiry after taking office in July, and claimed credit for grasping an issue that the Tories ignored for years.
Instead Starmer in January refused to endorse demands led by Elon Musk who was backed by the Tories, Reform and some Labour backbenchers for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. .
Launching another inquiry comes with some jeopardy for Starmer. It will likely be seized upon by the far right and used to galvanise activists such as Tommy Robinson.
Casey’s report calls for a radical improvement in the collection of data, particularly around ethnicity, because two thirds of police forces have failed to record the ethnicity of perpetrators.
Casey argues that there is enough evidence from just three forces to show “disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects”. She also claims there are a “significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews” and “high-profile child blockual exploitation prosecutions” to warrant further inquiries.
There are concerns that community tensions may increase after the identification of “men from Asian ethnic backgrounds” as groomers, at a time when there has been a record rise in anti-Muslim incidents across the UK. Police continue to worry that there could be a repeat of last summer’s riots, which were inspired by far riot conspiracy theories around immigration and the identity of the Southport killer.
It could also risk smearing Asian and Pakistani males as potential paedophiles, despite evidence to the contrary. The available data is patchy, but a November report by the child blockual exploitation taskforce suggested that a higher proportion of perpetrators of all forms of child block abuse are white.
Asked by the Guardian if highlighting the issue of ethnicity could lead to civil unrest, Casey said that new data must be investigated. “If good people don’t grip difficult issues, in my experience bad people do,” she said.
The inquiry itself will examine the policies and decisions made by social workers and youth workers employed by predominantly Labour councils. Questions will be raised about what local MPs – often Labour MPs – knew, and why they failed to expose it.
The worth of launching another expensive inquiry into child block abuse has already been questioned by some of those who initially exposed grooming gangs.
A seven-year national statutory inquiry, the independent nquiry into child blockual abuse, chaired by Prof Alexis Jay, covered the time period investigating abuse in children’s homes, the church and Westminster and scrutinising institutional responses to child blockual exploitation – including grooming gangs.
It involved more than 7,000 victims and survivors of child blockual abuse, including through the Truth Project, which gave survivors the opportunity to share their experiences and put forward suggestions for change.
Nazir Afzal, the prosecutor who helped to jail members of the Rochdale grooming gang, said he has “pragmatic doubts” about launching another national inquiry, adding that they were costly and lengthy, and could not bring people the accountability they wanted.
He said: “People want accountability. I’m not sure people’s expectations will be realised. Only criminal investigations can bring real accountability. That’s what needs to happen. Not just for those who offended, but also those who stood by and didn’t do what they were meant to do.
“Unfortunately my experience with national inquiries is that they take forever and don’t deliver accountability.”
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In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
