What unites the right like nothing else? Grooming gangs. And the Conservatives have kicked off 2025 by placing it front and centre. “The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal…No one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.” Kemi Badenoch posted on X yesterday. Reform MPs and Elon Musk, who have been driving this online, have echoed this call.
And in some ways, I agree. There is no doubt that thousands of young girls have been brutalised in the worst ways possible by groups of revolting men. There is no doubt that authorities cowered from the truth and did nowhere near enough. There is no doubt that the victims were treated with disdain, while the perpretators weren’t. I’m reminded of the police officers who came across Bannaras Hussain, a member of the Rotherham grooming gang, in their car park while he was assaulting a girl and just went about their day. Years later he was convicted for 10 charges including rape, indecent assault, procuring a woman to become a prostitute and actual bodily harm after having abused seven girls. This was not an isolated incident. There are so many young women living with the after effects of this trauma, so many men responsible potentially still walking free, and so many gaps in provision for vulnerable children. No-one can guarantee that grooming gangs are finished business.
