'No hiding place' for grooming gang 'predatory monsters', Shabana Mahmood tells GB News

Ms Mahmood praised The People's Channel for its work exposing the extent of the scandal and said that the inquiry will "explicitly examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders".

However, she appealed for time to ensure the right person is appointed to chair it, saying: "We have to get this right, and take the time to do so."

Ms Mahmood was forced to act as the preparations for the inquiry collapsed into chaos with four victims advising the inquiry quitting, and one of two candidates to chair it withdrawing.

The comments from Ms Mahmood are her first on the grooming scandal since replacing Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary last month.

Writing for GB News's website, the Home Secretary warned: "Once the inquiry begins, the truth will follow. There will be no hiding place for those who abused the most vulnerable in our society.

"Nor will those who ignored victims, and even covered up what occurred, be shielded from the truth. A moment of reckoning will come."

Addressing concerns from victims that the inquiry will be a whitewash, Mahmood said: "Firstly, this inquiry is not, and will never be, watered down on my watch.

"Its scope will not change, and nor will its intent. It will be robust and rigorous. It will direct and oversee local investigations, with the power to compel witnesses and summon evidence.

"Secondly, this inquiry will focus on grooming gangs – and that will not change. Thirdly, it will explicitly examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders."

The inquiry was first announced by Sir Keir Starmer in June after a review by Baroness Casey confirmed that the extent of the scandal was nationwide.

However, progress in establishing it has been slow. Ms Mahmood said that she hoped "the wait now will not be much longer", adding: "I know that some are frustrated that they are still waiting for this inquiry to begin. I understand that frustration. And I feel it myself.

"But I also know that we have to get this right, and take the time to do so. Crucially, we must appoint the right Chair to lead this work."

Ms Mahmood paid tribute to GB News for being one of the few media outlets that had "listened" to the victims" and gave them a voice".

But she said: "To its eternal discredit – the state, in its many forms, did not heed their call until it was far too late.

"In time, we came to know this as the 'grooming gangs' scandal, though I have never thought the name matched the scale of the evil. We must call them what they were: evil child rapists."

Ms Mahmood added: "While the data is scant, and shamefully so, Baroness Casey’s report was clear that 'disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds' were amongst the suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation."

"Like all who read that report, I was horrified by what Baroness Casey exposed," the Birmingham Ladywood MP added.

"Some of the most vulnerable people in this country were abused and exploited at the hands of predatory monsters.

"It was, and will forever remain, one of the darkest moments in our country’s history.

"The victims and survivors were failed, both at the time of their abuse and in the many years afterwards. They were not believed. They were treated as an inconvenience. In some cases, they were even made suspects themselves."

She continued: "This inquiry must uncover how these crimes were allowed to happen, and root out state failure wherever it occurred, be that local government, national government, policing or elsewhere.

"Doing so is the very least that the victims of these hideous crimes deserve. It is essential that the victims themselves are at the heart of this inquiry."

Turning to the victims who have quit the group advising the inquiry, Ms Mahmood added: "Should they wish to return, the door will always remain open to them.

"But even if they do not, I owe it to them – and the country – to answer some of the concerns that they have raised."