Labour‘s national grooming gangs inquiry has stalled due to difficulties in finding someone to become its chair, it has been revealed.
Four months on from Sir Keir Starmer performing a U-turn to commit to a full national probe, the Home Office confirmed it had still yet to appoint anyone to lead the inquiry.
There are also said to have been disputes over how far-reaching the probe into group-based child sex abuse should be.
The Prime Minister in June bowed to intense pressure to implement a full national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Home Office minister Jess Phillips last month told MPs that the appointment process for an inquiry chair was in its ‘final stages’.
She said she and the Home Secretary had met prospective candidates over the summer and that a panel of survivors and victims would be part of the final approval.
But sources told The Guardian that judges and lawyers appeared to be reluctant to head the probe.
They said grooming gangs remains a ‘toxic issue’ because chairs will have to explore why men of Pakistani origin have dominated many of the abuse rings.
Four months on from Sir Keir Starmer performing a U-turn to commit to a full national probe, the Home Office confirmed it had still yet to appoint anyone to lead the inquiry
Home Office minister Jess Phillips last month told MPs that the appointment process for an inquiry chair was in its ‘final stages’
The newspaper also reported that the terms of the inquiry are still being discussed amid wrangles over its remit.
There are said to have been disagreements over whether to include cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse committed by those other than street-based gangs.
It comes amid worries the new national inquiry could end up ‘sprawling’ in nature and ‘too vague’ like the seven-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Richard Scorer of law firm Slater and Gordon, who represented the largest single group at the IICSA inquiry and now represents about 30 grooming gang victims, said he was not surprised that Labour’s probe was struggling to find a chair.
‘Serious candidates may not wish to stand given that none of the recommendations of IICSA have yet [been] implemented,’ he said.
‘It is difficult to find senior people willing to sacrifice several years of their life on a controversial inquiry if there is no assurance that any of it will be implemented properly.
‘The problem with the IICSA grooming gangs investigation was that it was nothing like thorough enough, it was too superficial and took very little evidence from victims.
‘So no one who is being tapped up as a possible chair of this inquiry will want to repeat that mistake.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The abuse of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable.
‘We will do everything in our power to ensure these crimes never happen again.
‘That is why we have launched a statutory inquiry – equipped with the powers and resources required to get to the truth and deliver justice to the survivors.
‘We are working urgently to appoint the best chair to take forward this work, to get to the truth and deliver justice to the survivors.’
Sir Keir announced in June he would launch a statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal after accepting the recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey.
The crossbench peer had previously been commissioned by the Government to conduct a ‘rapid’ audit into the issue.
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 Ms 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.
Sir Keir initially dismissed calls for a new public inquiry, saying his focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations of the IICSA inquiry, which was led by Professor Alexis Jay.
