‘Grooming Gangs in Every UK Town’, Sarah Champion Urges Expanded UK-Wide Probe

Labour MP Sarah Champion has warned that grooming gangs operate “in every town, every city, every village in the UK,” urging the government to ensure its national inquiry covers the entire country. Her remarks follow new details from the Home Secretary on the scope of the investigation. Champion says only a fully nationwide probe can uncover the true scale of organised exploitation and prevent further failures.

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00:00Madam Deputy Speaker, as you know, I've spent 13 years researching this most evil of crimes,

00:04so I don't know how or where to start, but let me boil it down to a couple of things.

00:10One, I still have no idea why those paid to protect children didn't do that,

00:16and so I hope the inquiry both finds that out and makes sure there is no way that happens again.

00:21Two, I believe the scale of this is in literally every town, every city, every village in the United Kingdom.

00:30And so I hope the inquiry and the NCA work is able to cover all of that.

00:35But then that brings me to my substantive, which is this is going to cost a lot of money.

00:41Every case you find will need to be an investigation,

00:44but equally local authorities will have to put child protection measures in place.

00:49In Rotherham, all of that money has come from the local authority.

00:54So can the Home Secretary assure us that our local authorities will have child protection money

00:58and our police forces will have the resources they need to get the prosecutions we have to see.

01:07I thank my honourable friend and I pay tribute to her long work exposing many of the issues herself in her own area

01:15that will now be the subject of the National Enquiry.

01:18She's right, it is utterly shocking and defies comprehension that people whose only job was to look after vulnerable children

01:25failed in their duty to those children and the inquiry will ensure that they face ultimate accountability for their failures.

01:35I hear the point about the inquiry covering every single area.

01:40There is no doubt that child abuse occurs in every part of the country.

01:46One of the recommendations that Baroness Casey made was that the inquiry should be time limited

01:50because so many of the victims and survivors have waited so long for a proper measure of justice in their cases.

01:58And she recognised that there is therefore a necessary trade-off between doing something that is time limited

02:03and being able to go to every single area.

02:06But I'm sure the inquiry, the chair and the panel will engage constructively with members across this House

02:12to make sure they get to the right areas and can draw the lessons that will then lead to national recommendations.

02:18So even if the lessons come from a smaller cohort of areas, all of the recommendations will apply absolutely everywhere.

02:26And the government has already invested billions in child protection measures already in this parliament.

02:32But I recognise the caution is made and I'm sure that when the recommendations are made,

02:36the government will respond on money in due course.

‘Grooming Gangs in Every UK Town’, Sarah Champion Urges Expanded UK-Wide Probe | APT

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