Kemi Badenoch presses Government to accelerate grooming inquiry progress

Kemi Badenoch will seek to press the Government to speed up its efforts to establish a national grooming gangs inquiry on Monday.

The Conservative leader is expected to unveil draft terms of reference for the inquiry, drawn up with the help of some victims and survivors of abuse.

Those terms include an explicit focus on non-familiar abuse and consideration of both the “particular religious, ethnic, or national characteristics” of perpetrators, and whether these contributed to public bodies failing to act on concerns about grooming.

Before a press conference on Monday, Mrs Badenoch said: “This is about survivors and what they want. We must give a voice to the voiceless.

“They have told us what an inquiry must include in order to obtain justice. This is what the terms of reference sets out.”

The Government’s efforts to establish a national inquiry have stalled since the Prime Minister announced the probe in June.

In October, the final two candidates to chair the inquiry dropped out of the process amid a row over their connections to the police and social services.

And a group of women quit the inquiry’s victim liaison panel, accusing the Government of attempting to widen its remit to consider other forms of child sexual abuse.

Ministers brought in Whitehall troubleshooter Baroness Louise Casey to assist with setting up the inquiry, but acknowledged that it could be “months” before a chair was appointed.

Fiona Goddard, one of the women who left the liaison panel, backed the Conservatives’ proposals, saying she had “lost faith in the ability of the Government to make meaningful progress”.

She said: “I have more confidence that the terms of reference released today by the Conservatives reflect the real thoughts and feelings of survivors.

“They stay true to the original purpose of the inquiry and align with the approach proposed by Baroness Louise Casey, offering a honest, transparent, and meaningful framework for the investigation.”

Labour said the Government was “determined to deliver justice” for the victims of grooming gangs, and accused the Tories of failing to implement the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

A party spokesperson said: “Their record on this issue is clear: they had years to take action on this appalling scandal, yet time and time again they failed to do so.

“This Labour Government accepted all the recommendations from Baroness Casey’s report and we are committed to a full, statutory, national inquiry to uncover the truth.

“It will be robust, rigorous and laser focused on grooming gangs, and its scope will not change.

“The inquiry will direct and oversee local investigations, with the power to compel witnesses and summon evidence. And it will explicitly examine the background, ethnicity and culture of offenders.”