BRITAIN APPROVES NEW LOCAL INQUIRY INTO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE – Cooper says timetable for the independent inquiry will be communicated
The government has sanctioned new inquiries into child sexual abuse across the country after a decades-old grooming gangs scandal returned to the spotlight following criticism from opposition party Leader Kemi Badenock and billionaire Elon Musk.
The scandal involved organised groups in English towns and cities sexually exploiting vulnerable young girls, prompting a number of local investigations and a broader nationwide public inquiry into child sexual abuse.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper said the government would set out a timetable to implement the recommendations of a national inquiry published in 2022 but also go further and back new local investigations.
She stopped short of announcing a new national public inquiry into the scandal, in which the perpetrators have predominantly been of Pakistani heritage. Musk and Britain’s opposition Conservative Party, which was in power from 2010-2024 had called for a national inquiry.
Musk, a close ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has also accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to tackle the scandal when he was the country’s chief prosecutor, saying he was “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
Starmer has strongly defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had overcome resistance to tackling the scandal by reopening cases.
