UK government announces new domestic investigations into child sexual abuse | Government News

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says the government will also conduct a “rapid” review into child sexual abuse in the UK.

The UK government has announced it will support new domestic investigations into child sexual abuse and conduct a “rapid” review of the extent of child sexual exploitation in the country, following criticism over historic grooming scandals from US tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The scandals involved organized groups sexually exploiting vulnerable girls from the 1980s until at least the 2000s. A 2014 investigation found that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The issue was at the center of a political storm last week when A War of words A rift erupted between Musk and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was England’s director of public prosecutions when the scandals came to light.

Home Affairs Minister Yvette Cooper said on Thursday that the government would set a timetable for implementing the 20 recommendations of the national inquiry published in 2022, but would also go further and support new local investigations.

“Despite all those investigations, reports and hundreds of national recommendations, very little action has been taken and shamefully little progress has been made,” Cooper told Parliament.

It stopped short of announcing a new national public inquiry into the scandal, which Musk and the opposition Conservative Party had called for.

“This is a step in the right direction, but the results will speak for themselves,” Musk wrote on X, reposting a government announcement about the new measures.

Extremist right-wing figures have long exploited these historical scandals, especially those imprisoned Tommy Robinsonone of the UK’s most famous far-right activists, who has been praised by Musk.

In a mail Shared on X, Musk claimed Robinson was in prison for “telling the truth” and “should be released.” Musk also described Starmer’s protection minister, Jess Phillips, as a “rape genocide apologist”.

In response, Starmer said, “Those who spread lies and disinformation as widely as possible are not interested in the victims, they are interested in themselves,” without mentioning Musk by name.

Musk’s tirade, which included demands for a new public inquiry into the scandal, prompted some within the opposition Conservative Party to join calls for a new national inquiry.

“Locally relevant answers”

Yvette Cooper told Parliament on Thursday that she had ordered a “rapid-up three-month review of the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country”.

She added that the review would look into the “cultural and societal drivers” of child sexual abuse and “properly examine the racial and demographic data of the gangs involved and their victims.”

Cooper indicated that several local reviews, similar to those already undertaken, would be launched, rejecting calls from the opposition Conservative Party for a new national inquiry.

Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch, who has repeatedly clashed with the Prime Minister over calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, insisted: “I don’t think local investigations are sufficient.”

In response, Cooper said: “As we have seen, effective local inquiries can delve into much more local detail and provide more locally relevant answers and changes than a lengthy national-level inquiry can.”