UK outrage: Labour's 'moral panic' allowed cover-up of child sex grooming gangs

So-called grooming gangs have for years been responsible for sexual abuse against underage girls in U.K., mainly white girls from middle- and working-class backgrounds. These criminal groups are mostly made up of men of Pakistani origin and asylum seekers who have managed to operate with impunity under the complacent gaze of authorities.

During these last few years, the scant institutional response to these atrocities is due, among other things, to the "moral panic" that has paralyzed a government that thinks it is progressive. Labour's fear of being accused of racism has resulted in multiple allegations of sexual abuse against minors being ignored.

In January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, tried to politicize the situation, asserting that there was no need for a national inquiry into the systematic rape and abuse of girls, claiming those concerned about this issue were "jumping on the far-right bandwagon."

However, this Monday, a report finally revealed that there were systemic failures and institutional failures in the prosecution of a myriad of crimes committed by these organized grooming gangs, which have for so long sexually exploited minors in the U.K.

Scary report: Victims were treated as "prostitutes" while their abusers were free

The document, published by Baroness Casey, which runs to nearly 200 pages, concludes that the authorities often avoided recording the ethnicity of offenders for fear of being considered racist or creating racial tension within communities. In many cases, the official found that terms such as "Pakistani" were deleted from official records. According to the report, the reluctance to confront the ethnicity of the perpetrators has given these criminal gangs more power.

According to the report, the aggressors lured minors in vulnerable situations with gifts to abuse them, using alcohol, drugs and violence to keep them subdued and controlled, although it also states that "the grooming process is now as likely to start online" and that "hotspots might have moved from parks to vape shops and the use of hotels with anonymous check-in facilities."

The report also revealed other chilling facts:

Baroness Casey found that "blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness and even good but misdirected intentions" played a role in this collective failure, which led to countless allegations being dismissed as "sensationalized, biased or untrue."

The report underlines a major failure to treat girls as girls. It revealed a continued failure to protect minors and adolescent girls from sexual exploitation, and serious violence. It also found that those in positions of power within government institutions described victims as "child prostitutes," and they were often treated as criminals while their offenders walked free on the streets.

Finally, the report called for stricter laws, the mandatory collection of data on the ethnicity and nationality of perpetrators, and has insisted on the need to treat victims as minors, not as willing participants.

Following the report's release, Home Office Minister Yvette Cooper said Monday that the Labour government will accept all the recommendations set out in Baroness Casey's report, including the creation of a national inquiry into these grooming gangs.

Starmer has had no choice but to accept this national inquiry, which will possibly expose all those members of his party who have covered up these aberrations for years.

A cover-up with a history and a track record

But most disturbing of all, as Baroness Casey makes clear, is the fact that too many of these findings are not new.

As her report lays out, there have been 15 years of reports, reviews, inquiries and investigations into these heinous rapes, exploitation and violent crimes against these girls-detailed over 17 pages in her report, but very little has changed.

In 2014, Rotherham authorities ordered an independent report. The Rotherham report pointed out numerous instances in which police and officials failed to intervene. These failures were deemed "blatant."

The report also found that between 1997 and 2013, despite countless complaints, only one case of sexual abuse had been prosecuted. The authors also estimated that at least 1,400 girls were reportedly victims of these grooming rings.

The Rotherham report coincided with the discovery of similar cases in other cities such as Oxford, Oldham and Rochdale.

Labour under Tory scrutiny

Previously, there have been cases of possible obstruction of justice by Starmer's party. One of such cases is that of Shaun Davies, Labour M.P. for Telford, one of the areas most affected by grooming. He was elected in 2024 and given a seat on the Home Affairs Select Committee, a group tasked with examining child exploitation investigations.

This week, Davies said that, in 2016, former Conservative Home Affairs Minister Amber Rudd and then-M.P. for Richmond Rishi Sunak, "refused to provide a statutory inquiry" into grooming gangs in Telford.

However, according to a report by The Spectator, in 2016, Lucy Allan, Conservative M.P. for Telford, called for an investigation after being contacted by several victims who wanted to bring their cases of sexual abuse to justice.

The response from Davies, who at the time served as chairman of Telford and Wrekin Council, was sign a letter addressed to Amber Rudd, in which he assured "at this time that a further inquiry [into grooming in the region] is necessary."

Davies is not alone. According to The Spectator, there are others like him in Labour town halls across the country who victims of grooming gangs feel could have done more to help them get justice.

In 2023, then-Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak formed the Grooming Gangs Taskforce, with officers from more than 40 police forces in the United Kingdom. The team was able to identify some 4,000 victims and made more than 500 arrests.

Conservatives call for hard-hitting national inquiry

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said this week that such atrocities can no longer be covered up.

According to Badenoch, the new national inquiry recommended by Baroness Casey must address the hard questions: Did fear of being called racist lead to a cover-up? Will anyone who failed these girls, including police, councils and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), face prosecution? Will the survivors finally get an inquiry they can trust?

"Dithering won’t deliver justice. Prosecutions must happen alongside the inquiry—not after," Badenoch asserted.