Victims “clearly want action” and the time has passed for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs, the woman who led a seven-year inquiry into child sexual abuse has said.
Prof Alexis Jay told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “people should get on with” implementing her recommendations and “locally people need to step up to the mark and do the things that have been recommended” .
“We’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions – especially for the victims and survivors who’ve had the courage to come forward,” she said.
The Conservatives have called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs after the subject came under the spotlight, in part due to interventions on social media from Elon Musk.
The Labour government has rejected calls for a national inquiry, saying it will implement the recommendations of the Jay Review.
Prof Jay said the row over calls for a new national inquiry was “distracting from the issues” and she was “very unhappy with the politicisation of child sexual exploitation” in a “very uninformed way”.
She declined to answer when asked whether she felt billionaire Musk knew what was going on in Oldham, where the council has been refused a public inquiry.
But Prof Jay told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I have heard very little in the last few days about the appalling and lifelong effects that child sexual abuse can have on people.
“I am pleased that the subject matter and the inquiry recommendations are finally getting the attention they deserve but this is definitely not the way I would have chosen for it to happen, but it has had the effect of moving on the agenda.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year.
The proposal was one of 20 recommendations made by Prof Jay following her seven-year inquiry into child sexual abuse, which concluded in 2022.
Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester police detective who resigned in 2012 over poor handling of abuse cases in Rochdale, told the BBC the home secretary’s statement on child abuse was “a bit of a kneejerk reaction to international horror at what has happened in our country”.
The Conservatives’ shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has called for a national inquiry and said “what we’ve learnt more recently is the sheer scale of what is happening”.
“The Jay Review, for example, looked at six towns. We now suspect at least 50 towns have had grooming gangs of this kind,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“It’s right we have a full national inquiry so we can get to the truth, we can ensure the victims have justice, that we can try to prevent other vulnerable young girls from being in this position again, and the frankly cowardly officials and councillors who have covered this up can also be brought to justice.”
Asked whether the Conservatives had done enough to tackle the issue in government, Jenrick said “more needs to be done”.
He said: “I have long advocated going further than that and saying you should have a full-life sentence if you are a grooming gang perpetrator, so you never see the light of day, so you go to jail, you don’t step foot out on the streets of our country in 10 years or so, as is happening at the moment.
“This is one of the most appalling racially aggravated crimes in our country’s history. It must be taken more seriously by everyone.”
BBC chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman says Musk has latched on to the grooming gangs scandal and kept talking about it until it was at the top of the political agenda in the UK”.
He said there was a “split on the issue” between the Labour government, which has rejected calls for a new public inquiry, and the Conservative opposition which wants one.
The government’s position is that it should implement the recommendations of the Jay Review, Zeffman added.
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