UK Government announces new local child sexual abuse inquiries | Government news

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government would also launch a “rapid” review of child sexual abuse in the UK.

The UK government has announced it will support new local child sexual abuse investigations and launch a “swift” review of the extent of child sexual exploitation in the country, following criticism over US tech billionaire Elon Musk's historic marriage scandals.

The scandals involved organized groups exploiting sexually vulnerable girls from the 1980s until at least the 2010s. 2014 investigation found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The issue was at the center of a political firestorm last week when a a war of words erupted between Musk and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was director of public prosecutions in England when the scandals came to light.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Thursday said the government would set a timetable for implementing the 20 recommendations from a national inquiry published in 2022, but would also go further and support new local inquiries.

“Despite all these national inquiries, reports and hundreds of recommendations, too little action has been taken and shamefully little progress has been made,” Cooper told parliament.

She did not announce a new national public inquiry into the scandal, which Musk and the opposition Conservative Party have 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.

Historical scandals have long been seized upon by far-right figures, particularly those deprived of their liberty Tommy Robinsonone of the UK's most prominent far-right activists, whom Musk praised.

In a post shared with X, Musk claimed that Robinson was in jail “for telling the truth” and “should be released.” Musk also described Starmer's security minister, Jess Phillips, as an “apologist for rape genocide”.

In response, Starmer said “those who spread lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible don't care about the victims, they care about themselves,” without mentioning Musk by name.

Musk's tirade, which included calls for a new public inquiry into the scandal, prompted some in 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 three-month “rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang exploitation across the country”.

The review will look at the “cultural and societal drivers” of child sexual abuse and “properly examine data on the ethnicity and demographics of the gangs involved and their victims,” ​​she added.

Cooper noted that several local reviews, similar to those already carried out, 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 marriage gangs, insisted: “I don't think local inquiries are enough.”

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