Yvette Cooper is to announce a number of local inquiries into failures into tackling Asian grooming gangs in around 50 towns across the UK.
The home secretary is set to make an announcement in the Commons after three Labour MPs from the north west and Manchester mayor Andy Burnham broke ranks to demand a rethink.
Last week the government, in particular safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and the prime minister Keir Starmer, came under furious attack from right-wing figures, led by X owner Elon Musk, after they decided not to hold a national inquiry into the scandal.
Yvette Cooper set to announce new grooming gang inquiries (Getty Images)
But with pressure mounting the government has instead agreed to a series of local inquiries into failures, with a budget of £10 million.
It followed Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, and Rochdale MP Paul Waugh all demanding that an inquiry was held.
It is understood that the local reviews will be led by Baroness Louise Casey,and will focus on the “cultural drivers” and ethnicity of the gangs involved in the grooming and rape of underage girls.
Ms Cooper is also expected to announce that she will ask police forces to reopen “cold cases” relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse of young girls.
But local inquiries into the grooming gang scandal was condemned by the former Leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies who said they were “not sufficient”.
“This dreadful scandal was able to continue because of huge issues within our institutions, so we need to understand how the culture within those institutions worked. Only with a national inquiry can we join the dots and really get to the bottom of this issue for victims.”
But Ms Champion backed the expected announcement.
She recently wrote a five-point plan which called on the Home Office to mandate “local inquiries around the country to hold authorities to account – which then report back to the government.”
She posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Wow! Looks like the Government is accepting my 5 point plan to prevent child abuse and expose cover-ups over Grooming gangs! Statement approx 2pm – I’ll be all over the details!!”
Sir Keir ordered his MPs to vote against a national probe in the Commons last week, arguing that victims wanted action rather than another lengthy investigation.
But it later emerged that the PM and many of his senior ministers did not take part in the vote themselves.
Ms Champion has warned that child sexual abuse is “endemic” in the UK and had to be “recognised as a national priority”.
Mr Musk called on the King to step in and dissolve parliament after Labour rejected a call for a national inquiry into child grooming.
The tech billionaire triggered an explosive row over Sir Keir‘s handling of the scandal after he suggested the prime minister had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.
While the monarch does have the power to dissolve parliament, this power is a formality and is done so upon request of the prime minister. For the King to dissolve parliament against the wishes of the prime minister would cause a constitutional crisis in the UK.
More to follow….