Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will announce a plan for Government-backed local inquiries into grooming gangs today, GB News understands.
With Labour under increasing pressure to launch a national Public Inquiry into the rape gangs scandal, Cooper will be addressing MPs on “child sexual exploitation and abuse” at 2pm on Thursday.
Yvette Cooper is set to announce the move today
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Labour’s line was that the Government should move to implement the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) before launching a separate probe – but after skyrocketing public pressure, this could change today.
Cooper is also expected to announce new rules for police forces on investigating child sexual exploitation, according to ITV News.
Sarah Champion, one of the three rebel Labour MPs, said: “Wow! Looks like the Government is accepting my five-point plan to prevent child abuse and expose cover-ups over grooming gangs!”
Champion had urged the Home Office to “mandate local inquiries around the country to hold authorities to account – which then report back to the Government”.
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Sarah Champion’s five-point plan for addressing child sexual abuse
SARAH CHAMPION MP
The Rotherham MP said that inquiries were necessary so witnesses could be summoned to give evidence to “satisfy the public concern of cover-ups”.
She also pointed to Telford’s grooming gangs inquiry as an effective model, which was “nationally-resourced” and “victim-centred”.
The news comes as fresh polling, exclusively shared with GB News by Friderichs Advisory and JL Partners, revealed that nearly half of Britons – 46 per cent – say the rape gangs scandal was caused by a cover-up, with only 14 per cent disagreeing
Every group in the population, including ‘Bame’ voters and Labour voters, think the scandal was more likely to have been caused by a cover-up than not, the data shows.
Of the people who see it as a cover-up, 42 per cent say corruption is to blame, while 38 per cent point to political correctness.
And in further damning data on media attitudes to the rape gangs, more than four in ten – 43 per cent – agree that the media did not cover the grooming scandal “because of political correctness”, with only 18 per cent disagreeing.
Every group in society surveyed was more likely to agree than disagree with this statement, including Bame voters and Labour voters.
