Sir Keir Starmer announces national inquiry into grooming gangs

The prime minister has announced there will be a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs.

Sir Keir Starmer said he had accepted the recommendations of an audit by Baroness Louise Casey into the data and evidence on the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse.

Baroness Casey has recommended a national inquiry is required, he said. The inquiry will cover England and Wales.

For months, Sir Keir has faced criticism for not being willing to set one up.

At the start of the year, the government dismissed calls for a national inquiry, arguing it had already been examined in a seven-year inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay.

But speaking to reporters on his way to the G7 summit, which begins in Canada tomorrow, the prime minister said: “I’ve never said we should not look again…