Grooming gangs survivors ‘contacted by Jess Phillips’ as Labour promise ‘new actions’ ahead of bombshell review

The contact follows months of meetings between survivors and Home Office officials, with GB News facilitating some of these introductions.

Whilst the specific nature of these promised actions remains unclear, the timing coincides with mounting pressure on the government to address the grooming gangs scandal comprehensively.

The development comes as Labour continues to face calls for a national inquiry into the issue, which has affected communities across Britain.

A significant development is expected next week when Baroness Casey publishes her audit of the grooming gangs scandal.

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It is suggested that her report will recommend that Sir Keir Starmer launch a new national inquiry into the issue.

The report is expected to explicitly link the scandal to men of Pakistani origin and conclude that white British girls were "institutionally ignored for fear of racism".

Baroness Casey has spent months examining the scale and nature of the abuse across the country.

This recommendation would mark a major challenge to the Government's current stance.

Labour has consistently resisted calls for a national inquiry, arguing that time would be better spent implementing recommendations from previous investigations rather than launching new ones.

The Government's resistance to a national inquiry persists despite the scandal's vast scale.

50 different towns and cities have been affected by grooming gangs in recent decades, with the previous Conservative government's task force making "well over 1,100 arrests since April 2023".

Labour maintains that localised inquiries are more effective, pointing to the Telford model where a 2022 review uncovered over 1,000 victims across several decades.

Ministers also argue they've already had the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in 2022.

However, critics note that review examined just six areas rather than the full extent of the scandal. Five local councils have launched their own inquiries this year under Labour's preferred approach of area-specific investigations rather than a comprehensive national examination.

Fresh calls for statutory powers in any future inquiry have emerged following the latest convictions in Rochdale. Seven men were found guilty on Friday of grooming two girls and treating them like "sex slaves", with the court hearing the abuse occurred "under the noses of social workers and others who should have done far more to protect them".

Rochdale MP Paul Waugh demanded "proper accountability" for those who allowed the abuse to happen.

"Whether these independent inquiries are national or local, they must have full statutory powers to force witnesses to appear," he told the Manchester Evening News.

The Labour MP said he remains "open to" a national inquiry but emphasised that any investigation must be able to compel testimony. "No political party, no council, no police officer, no social worker, no racial group should be exempt from the need to find the facts," he stated.