Further pressure on Starmer as Rotherham MP backs national grooming inquiry
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The Labour MP for Rotherham has called for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, adding more pressure on Sir Keir Starmer. Sarah Champion said child sexual abuse was "endemic" in Britain and "needs to be recognised as a national priority".
She is the latest Labour politician to call for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) after Dan Carden, the Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, became the first Labour MP to back calls for a national inquiry at the weekend. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, has also said he would not "stand against" a further review while Paul Waugh, the Labour MP for Rochdale, backed a further inquiry on the condition it had the support of victims and survivors.
Politics latest: Chancellor will remain until next election, Downing Street says. Ms Champion, who resigned from Jeremy Corbyn's shadow frontbench in 2017 after she said Britain had a "problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls", issued a five-point plan for tackling CSE on X - the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, who has increasingly taken an interest in the issue.
Her intervention will add more pressure on the prime minister, who has so far resisted the Conservatives' calls for a national inquiry into "rape gangs", arguing that it would delay implementing measures that would help victims. Sir Keir, the former director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, pointed to the fact that there had already been the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Professor Alexis Jay - but critics have argued that it was not comprehensive enough.
