The Conservatives have called for a national inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”, after the Home Office denied requests for an inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X that a public inquiry into organised grooming gangs is “long overdue”.
After 14 years in government, in opposition the Conservatives have now written to the Labour government calling for a national inquiry into the scandal that rocked communities across the UK after it was exposed in 2013.
Shadow Ministers Chris Philp and Alicia Kearns wrote a letter to the Home Secretary on Thursday, urging her to “launch a time-limited, national statutory Public Inquiry into grooming and rape gangs to get to the truth once and for all.”
The letter also calls on the government to introduce mandatory deportation for “all foreign nationals convicted of grooming and rape”, and to regularly publish data on the ethnicity of abusers and victims.
This comes as safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said the government will not “intervene” when it comes to an inquiry in Oldham, one of a number of locations where child sexual exploitation was exposed.
Phillips said she understands the “strength of feeling” for a government-led inquiry, but believes “it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene”.
A Labour spokesperson said the government “will welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham Council which puts victims’ voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham.
“Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims.
“We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester.
“This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated.”
The 2022 independent inquiry into Oldham Council’s handling of the scandal found that children were failed by the agencies meant to protect them from sexual abuse.
The report found interventions by the council and Greater Manchester Police fell “far short” of what was required, but that there was “no evidence” of a “cover-up”.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk joined calls for the government to take action on Wednesday, saying Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for her response to Oldham Council.
He also appeared to place blame at the PM’s door, as he argued that “rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice” during Starmer’s time as director of public prosecutions.
Badenoch said “Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots.
“2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.”
An Oldham Council spokesman said: “Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation.
“Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge.”
Responding to Badenoch’s post, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry.
“The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.”
The national grooming scandal saw girls as young as 11 groomed and raped across a number of towns in England, including Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford.
A report by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014 revealed that between 1997 and 2013, around 1,400 girls were abused and police and social services failed to intervene.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.
In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt “frustrated” that none of the probe’s 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion.
She said: “It’s a difficult subject matter, but it is essential that there’s some public understanding of it.
“But we can only do what we can to press the Government to look at the delivery of all of this.
“It doesn’t need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done.”
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