Overview

• Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of covering up grooming gang scandals and called for a national inquiry, claiming at least 50 towns are affected.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended his government’s approach, emphasizing the implementation of prior inquiry recommendations and his role in the first grooming gang prosecution.
• The Labour government has announced five local inquiries, with funding confirmed for Oldham, but the locations of the remaining four inquiries remain unspecified.
• Badenoch criticized the local inquiry model, arguing it allows councils to avoid accountability, while safeguarding minister Jess Phillips acknowledged past cover-ups but did not detail further inquiry plans.
• Baroness Louise Casey continues to lead a national audit on child sexual exploitation, examining the scale and nature of group-based abuse.