The issue of rape gangs will not go away

Finally, we heard it. At PMQs today, the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, dropped the euphemism ‘grooming’ and said ‘rape gangs’ to describe the networks of predominantly Muslim men who prey on underage girls. Sir Keir tried to defuse the issue in his opening comments by dismissing calls for a national enquiry. ‘The Jay inquiry… [took] seven years, which would take us with a further inquiry to 2031,’ he said. (Perhaps he meant 2032.) He knows why a new inquiry would take years just to get started. Every cop and local councillor, fearing prison, would lawyer-up at public expense to minimise their culpability.

But he blamed the victims for creating these obstacles. ‘Victims and survivors do not want to be rushed through this process. It’s not sensible to suggest this could be done in a hurry,’ he said. Ludicrously, he claimed that Kemi’s timing was the problem.