𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Nigel Farage has declared a probe into Britain’s grooming gang scandal must go back “40 years”. The Reform UK leader said the systematic rape and sexual abuse of thousands of white British girls – mainly by groups of Pakistani men – “shames us as a country”.

Mr Farage said politicians, “local police force commanders” and “council leaders” should be “held to account”, adding “too few have”. He told GB News: “I would want to go back 40 years, to look at police reports, notes of meetings. I would like every piece of written information over 40 years to be published, redact the names to protect people if necessary.

“I think there has been institutional failure from social services, from elected politicians, from police and it’s gone on for decade after decade.

“I’m pleased something is happening. But it is nowhere near enough.

“It has to go to local police force commanders, it has to go to council leaders. Rotherham? Everyone knew.

“I remember being there in 2014, this had been known about for years and years and years and yet deliberately and wilfully, it wasn’t discussed for fear of stoking tensions.”

The first eight closed grooming gang cases have been referred back to police forces for reinvestigation as part of a mammoth national review of hundreds of files where lines of inquiry may have been missed.

Operation Beaconport is examining cases between January 2010 and March 2025 where there are two or more suspects accused of sexual abuse and they are still alive; there is a victim of a sexual offence with physical contact; cases have not already been reviewed; and no further action had been taken.

In November, 1,273 such investigations from 23 police forces had already been referred to the National Crime Agency (NCA), 236 of which were prioritised because they involved allegations of rape.

“This appalling scandal shames us as a country in the eyes of the rest of the World. People can’t believe that this not only happened, but was allowed to perpetuate here.

“And still London, more and more evidence coming out this was happening in London amidst an absolute denial from the Mayor. People have to be held to account.”

On Tuesday, the NCA said: “At this early stage, the reviews have identified closed cases from eight force areas that may have viable lines of inquiry.

“The forces have been directed to reopen these cases, to determine the next steps in relation to any reinvestigation.”

NCA director general Graeme Biggar said it was “the first step toward seeking justice for victims and survivors”.

“Operation Beaconport is the most comprehensive and complex investigation into child sexual exploitation and abuse in UK history,” he said.

The review of cases coincides with the one-year mark of the publication of Baroness Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The author of a landmark report has warned children who were groomed, sexually abused and then prosecuted for crimes, including prostitution, are still being failed.

Baroness Louise Casey, who led the national investigation into grooming gangs, called on the government last year to quash any convictions of victims who were criminalised when they should have been protected.

And a Home Office minister who was groomed as a child has pledged to bring the perpetrators behind the grooming gang scandals to justice because it “must never be allowed to happen again.”

Natalie Fleet said: “Victims and survivors were repeatedly let down by the very institutions meant to keep them safe, despite clear warnings and repeated calls for change. Vulnerable children were simply ignored,” she said.

“As a survivor; I know the lifelong impact these types of crime can have. I know what it’s like to carry memories that don’t go away.

“I know the sense of shame, guilt and responsibility. I also know the sense of injustice that I was made to feel this way. That is why this matters so deeply to me. And that is why this must never be allowed to happen again.”