On 13 April 2026, a statutory public inquiry into the grooming gang scandal finally began work. Decades late. Too late for thousands of victims whose lives were destroyed. Too late for the whistleblowers who were silenced, the journalists who were smeared, and the parents who begged for help and were told to go away. But it has begun. And for that small mercy, we should be grateful — even as we ask why it took this long.
A Scandal the Establishment Wanted to Bury
Let's be clear about what happened. Over at least two decades, organised gangs — overwhelmingly of Pakistani heritage — systematically raped, trafficked, and abused thousands of mostly white working-class girls in towns across the north of England and the Midlands. Rotherham. Rochdale. Oldham. Telford. Oxford. Huddersfield. The pattern was the same everywhere. Vulnerable girls. Identified. Groomed. Shared between men. Threatened. Destroyed.
The authorities — police, councils, social services — knew. They had known for years. The reports are there, in black and white, from the early 2000s onwards. And they did nothing. Or worse, they knew and actively suppressed it because they were afraid of being called racist. Girls were dismissed as "child prostitutes." Parents trying to rescue their own daughters were arrested. The state failed its own children on a scale that should have ended political careers. Instead, almost no one paid a price.
Why It Took So Long
Ask yourself why this inquiry is only starting in 2026. The scandal was exposed in detail by Andrew Norfolk of The Times more than a decade ago. Alexis Jay's Rotherham report — confirming at least 1,400 victims in that one town — came out in 2014. Each subsequent revelation was followed by demands for a national statutory inquiry. Each government refused. The reasons varied. The real reason didn't: a political establishment terrified of the racial, religious, and class dimensions of the truth.
It took Reform UK, alongside a small handful of brave backbench MPs from other parties, years of relentless pressure to force this inquiry. Keir Starmer — the man who as Director of Public Prosecutions was in charge when many of these cases were being declined — initially resisted it. He was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the point where he finally had to concede that the country needed answers.
What the Inquiry Must Deliver
If this inquiry is to mean anything, it must do three things. First, it must name names. Officials, councillors, police officers, and politicians who knew and failed to act must be identified. There must be consequences. Not reports sitting on shelves. Resignations. Dismissals. Where possible, prosecutions.
Second, it must be honest about the ethnic and cultural dimensions of these crimes. We cannot continue to pretend that the overwhelming overrepresentation of men of Pakistani heritage in these gangs is a statistical coincidence. Honest sociology, not polite silence, is what the victims deserve.
Third, it must recommend reforms that actually change the system. Better child protection. Proper police accountability. An end to the two-tier policing culture where communities are policed differently based on their identity. A professional culture that rewards telling inconvenient truths rather than punishing it.
What Reform UK Would Do
Reform UK will support this inquiry fully and hold it to account if it tries to duck the hard questions. We will continue to speak plainly where other parties mumble. We believe British girls are entitled to the same protection as anyone else, and that the failure to provide it was one of the greatest moral scandals of modern times.
Justice delayed is not justice denied, as long as it eventually comes. For the thousands of victims and their families, this inquiry is a start — not an end. We owe them the truth. Finally, at last, we may be about to get it.