Sir Keir Starmer will launch a statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal after resisting pressure for months to implement a full national probe.
The Prime Minister said he had read “every single word” of an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for the investigation.
Earlier this year the Government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.
Prof Jay’s 2022 report concluded there had been institutional failings across the country and tens of thousands of victims in England and Wales.
But speaking to reporters travelling with him on his visit to Canada, the Prime Minister said: “From the start I have always said that we should implement the recommendations we have got because we have got many other recommendations… I think there are 200 when you take all of the reviews that have gone on at every level and we have got to get on with implementing them.
“I have never said we should not look again at any issue. I have wanted to be assured that on the question of any inquiry. That’s why I asked Louise Casey who I hugely respect to do an audit.
“Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on.
“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.
“I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.
“I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me and having read her report, I respect her in any event. I shall now implement her recommendations.”
Asked when it would be launched, Sir Keir said the probe would be implemented under the Inquiries Act, which will take “a bit of time to sort out” and would be done in “an orderly way”.
This means the inquiry will be able to compel witnesses to give evidence.
It is understood the inquiry will be national in scope, co-ordinating a series of targeted local investigations.
A national row over grooming gangs was ignited in January after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his X social media platform to launch a barrage of attacks on Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
It followed the Government’s decision to decline a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town.
The Government later commissioned a “rapid” audit by Lady Casey into the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse, which had been due to take three months but was delayed.
Back in January, Sir Keir accused those calling for a new inquiry into grooming gangs of jumping on a “far-Right bandwagon”, appearing to hit out at Musk by criticising those who “spread lies and misinformation” online.
Months later, cabinet minister Lucy Powell was forced to apologise for appearing to suggest it was a “dog whistle” issue to discuss grooming gangs.
In a radio debate, a Reform commentator Tim Montgomerie had asked Powell if she had seen a Channel 4 programme about five girls who were sexually abused by grooming gangs.
In response, the Manchester Central MP, responded: “Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Yeah, OK, let’s get that dog whistle out.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has repeatedly attacked Sir Keir over his resistance to launching another national probe, said the Prime Minister had to be “led by the nose to make the correct decision”.
“Keir Starmer doesn’t know what he thinks unless an official report has told him so,” she said on Saturday.
“Just like he dismissed concerns about the winter fuel payment and then had to U-turn, just like he needed the Supreme Court to tell him what a woman is, he had to be led by the nose to make the correct decision here.
“I’ve been repeatedly calling for a full National Inquiry since January. It’s about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months.
“But this must not be the end of the matter. There are many, many more questions that need answering to ensure this inquiry is done properly and quickly.
“Many survivors of the grooming gangs will be relieved that this is finally happening, but they need a resolution soon, not in several years’ time. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage said the move was a “welcome U-turn” and would “expose the multiple failings of the British establishment”.
