Are there 'grooming gangs' in London? Sadiq Khan accused of stonewalling Tory questions
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Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been accused of “stonewalling” questions about whether London has a problem with so-called “grooming gangs”. His Tory rival Susan Hall made nine successive attempts at Mayor’s Question Time to ask Sir Sadiq whether there were gangs operating, or previously active, in the capital.
But Sir Sadiq repeatedly asked Ms Hall, the former Tory mayoral candidate, to clarify what she meant by grooming gangs, claiming: “I’m not clear what she means.”. He said young people were being “groomed” in London by County Lines drugs gangs.
Ms Hall made clear she was referring to “rape gangs” that prey on girls and young women for sex, and mentioned cases in Rotherham and Bradford. In her questions to the mayor on Thursday, Ms Hall chose not to make any reference to the heritage, nationality or religion of any alleged perpetrators.
The City Hall clash came only hours before Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced small-scale local investigations in five areas after weeks of pressure for a new national inquiry. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has linked the grooming scandals to “peasants” from “sub-communities” while former Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has blamed “alien cultures”.
Ms Hall told The Standard on Friday: “Sadiq Khan needs to take this seriously. “The public deserve answers, not a mayor who plays schoolyard games to avoid answering questions and who chooses to stonewall instead of being open.”. During her questioning of Sir Sadiq, Ms Hall warned that London was set to lose “1,287 police officers” because of a lack of funding.
