𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Children who asked for help, were ignored, and were left in danger. That is the wound running through this issue.

Girls as young as 10 were raped, and this was deliberately covered up by councils and the police because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani origin. Some of those in authority cared more about community relations than protecting vulnerable children.

For years, victims fought to be heard, their families demanded answers, and still the system looked away.

When Oldham asked for a national inquiry, when victims and families demanded answers, the Labour Government did not listen. They dismissed it, smeared those calling for scrutiny as “far-Right”.

That impulse to silence people is exactly how these scandals were able to grow in the shadows.

Since then, Labour have dragged their feet at every stage. Delayed, diluted, narrowed.

Six months on, there is still no national process to expose the scale of offending, the organised networks operating across towns, or the catastrophic failures inside social services, policing and local authorities.

Survivors have spent years being told to wait. They should not have to wait a day longer.

That is why the terms of reference matter. Our proposals would give an inquiry real force. We are publishing the Terms of Reference because Labour have done nothing on this for 6 months.

Our terms would put survivors at the centre, with trauma-informed procedures, anonymity where needed, and proper psychological support.

They give the inquiry the power to compel evidence, track networks across England and Wales, scrutinise whether agencies ignored warnings, and investigate whether concerns about ethnicity or “community sensitivities” led authorities to look the other way.

Under our terms, an inquiry would be able to open local investigations, draw on police records, and court files, hear detailed testimony, map patterns of abuse, assess institutional harm, and refer evidence directly for prosecution. And importantly, the Chair will publish an initial work programme and timetable, including modules and milestones, to ensure justice is delivered swiftly.

This is a statutory, independent, judge-led inquiry with teeth, finally capable of delivering the truth survivors have been denied for decades.

Chris Philp is the Shadow Home Secretary