The Labour government has abandoned its commitment to hold five local inquiries into grooming gangs, redirecting a £5 million fund to “locally-led work” following feedback from local authorities, a move that has ignited fierce criticism from MPs, campaigners, and victims’ advocates.
The decision, announced in Parliament earlier this afternoon (8th April 2025), by Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, marks a significant reversal from promises made in January this year by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to investigate the systemic abuse of vulnerable children across Britain.
Conservative MP, Katie Lam, led the charge against the policy shift in a passionate speech to the Commons, accusing Labour of perpetuating a cover-up of one of the nation’s most harrowing scandals.
Ms Lam, MP for Weald of Kent and a former Home Office adviser, addressed a near-empty chamber this afternoon, decrying the government’s failure to deliver justice for victims of grooming gangs: “Children across Britain have been sexually tortured by gangs of men,” she declared, emphasising the scale of the abuse—estimated to span dozens of towns—and the complicity of those in power who allowed it to persist unchecked. She argued that local inquiries, even when promised, lack the scope and authority to “join the dots” across regions, a point she reiterated in calling for a national inquiry. “Local inquiries are not good enough—they can’t,” she said, cutting off mid-sentence as she underscored the urgency of a broader approach.
Her speech, delivered hours before this article’s deadline, has yet to be fully transcribed in Hansard, but its thrust aligns with growing discontent over Labour’s handling of the issue.
The policy shift came to light earlier today when Sammy Woodhouse, a prominent grooming gang survivor and campaigner, posted on X: “BREAKING: Labour will no longer be holding five local inquiries into rape gangs. The £5 million will now go towards ‘locally-led work,’ following feedback from local authorities.”
Sammy’s statement, timestamped around 4:00 PM BST, preceded a flurry of corroborating posts from named accounts, including news outlets and political figures, confirmingt Phillips’ announcement occurred in the early afternoon.
The redirection of funds—initially pledged to support inquiries in pilot areas like Oldham—has been framed by Labour as a response to local councils’ preferences, though specifics remain sparse pending official records.
The decision caps a turbulent three months for Labour’s grooming gang policy. In January, Cooper outlined plans for five local inquiries, backed by £5 million, to be modelled on the Telford inquiry led by Tom Crowther KC.
The move followed intense pressure from opposition MPs, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, as well as public outcry amplified by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s interventions on X.
By 20th March, however, the funding model shifted to a competitive bidding process for councils, a change criticised as diluting accountability. Today’s announcement scraps the inquiries entirely, prompting accusations that Labour is retreating from its commitments under pressure from local authorities reluctant to revisit past failures. Oldham and Bradford top that particular list of shame.
Ms Lam’s address highlighted the human cost of this retreat. Drawing on her Home Office experience, she questioned how “so many people in positions of power let [these crimes] go on so long,” pointing to documented cases in Rotherham, Rochdale, and beyond, where over 1,400 children were abused over decades, often by British-Pakistani gangs. She echoed sentiments from a January Commons debate, where MPs rejected a Tory amendment for a national inquiry by 364 to 111, a vote Badenoch later called a missed opportunity for justice.
Today, Lam reframed that call, arguing that even the promised local inquiries—now abandoned—fell short of addressing the scandal’s national scope.
Public reaction has been swift and scathing. Campaigners, including Sammy Woodhouse, have long argued that only a comprehensive inquiry can expose systemic failings across police forces, councils, and the Crown Prosecution Service—failings Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged in 2012 as DPP, when he admitted the CPS had let victims down.
Sammy’s collaboration with independent MP Rupert Lowe on a crowdfunded “Grooming Gang Inquiry,” launched on 28th March with a £100,000 target, reflects this frustration. Whilst lacking statutory powers, their effort—supported by survivors, ex-police, and experts—has been positioned as a grassroots alternative to government inaction, a narrative likely strengthened by Labour’s latest move.
The beleagured government, the most unpopular in living memory, defends the shift; with Jess Phillips expected to have argued in her speech (full details pending Hansard) that “locally-led work” offers flexibility and empowers communities over top-down probes. This echoes her January stance favouring Telford-style inquiries, though critics like Katie Lam contend it risks leaving accountability to the very bodies implicated in past cover-ups.
The £5 million’s new purpose remains undefined—whether for prevention, victim support, or data collection—leaving MPs and campaigners demanding clarity.
For victims, the stakes are personal. Sammy Woodhouse, a Rotherham rape survivor, has called inquiries “the only way to hold councils and police accountable,” a view Ms Lam amplified in Parliament. With at least 50 towns potentially affected—far beyond the five once slated for investigation—the scrapping of inquiries raises fears that justice will remain elusive.
As one campaigner told this outlet, “Every delay is a victory for those who failed these girls.”
Labour’s supermajority ensures this decision faces little legislative threat, but the political fallout is mounting. The Lam’s speech, paired with the Woodhouse and Lowe independent push, signals a cross-party and public resolve that may force a reckoning—whether through Parliament or beyond.
Until Hansard confirms Phillips’ exact words and Lam’s full rebuttal, the story rests on these accounts and the palpable anger they’ve unleashed.
One thing is clear: the grooming gang scandal, decades in the making, refuses to fade quietly.
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Page last updated: Monday 7th April, 2025 at 19h15
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