Nigel Farage issues 5-word warning to Keir Starmer in grooming gangs row

Nigel Farage has issued a blunt, five-word warning to Keir Starmer after the Prime Minister U-turned over an inquiry into grooming gangs. After resisting pressure for months to implement a full probe, Sir Keir said he had read "every single word" of an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and accepted her recommendation for an investigation.

Reform UK's leader described the move as a "welcome U-turn" while Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch urged Sir Keir to apologise for "six wasted months". Mr Farage said a full, statutory inquiry, if "done correctly", would expose the multiple failings of the British establishment. In five words, he issued a warning to Sir Keir, saying: "This cannot be a whitewash."

Mrs Badenoch said: "Just like he dismissed concerns about the winter fuel payment and then had to U-turn, just like he needed the Supreme Court to tell him what a woman is, he had to be led by the nose to make the correct decision here," she said.

"I've been repeatedly calling for a full national inquiry since January. It's about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months."

Earlier this year, the Labour Government rejected calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him to the G7 summit in Canada, Sir Keir said: "I have never said we should not look again at any issue."

He said Baroness Casey's position when she started the audit was that there wasn't a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was already happening.

Sir Keir said: "She has looked at the material she has looked at and she has come to the view there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen.

"I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit."

The Times newspaper reported that the findings from Baroness Casey's review will be set out in Parliament on Monday.

A statutory inquiry will be able to compel witnesses to give evidence. It is understood it will be national in scope, co-ordinating a series of targeted local investigations.

Professor Jay's 2022 report concluded there had been institutional failings across the country and there are tens of thousands of abuse survivors in England and Wales.

A national row over grooming gangs was ignited in January after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his X social media platform to launch a barrage of attacks on Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.

It came after the Government's decision to decline a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Greater Manchester town.

The Government later commissioned a "rapid" audit by Lady Casey into the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse, which had been due to take three months but was delayed.