Starmer on Saturday said he had accepted the need for a national inquiry into grooming gangs on the recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey, whose near 200-page report into the scandal will be published on Monday.

After years of public outcry, multiple local reviews, and political hesitation, the UK government has announced a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs and institutional failures that enabled decades of child sexual exploitation.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned "we have already lost months" after the Prime Minister repeatedly rejected calls for a national inquiry into one of Britain's most shameful scandals.