Former children’s commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield to lead grooming gangs inquiry

A former children’s commissioner will chair the inquiry into child sexual abuse by grooming gangs in what will be a “moment of reckoning”, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced.

Baroness Anne Longfield will lead the inquiry, which was derailed when four women resigned from its survivors panel and two leading candidates to chair the investigation pulled out.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said “we must root out this evil once and for all” as she told the Commons the peer would lead the three-year inquiry.

The prime minister announced the inquiry for England and Wales in June after accepting the recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey’s audit into group-based child sexual abuse.

On her appointment, Baroness Longfield said the inquiry “owes it to the victims, survivors and the wider public to identify the truth, address past failings and ensure that children and young people today are protected in a way that others were not”.

She added: “The inquiry will follow the evidence and will not shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths wherever we find them.”

Baroness Longfield will be supported by panellists Zoe Billingham, a former inspector at HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and Eleanor Kelly, former chief executive of Southwark Council.

Mahmood said Baroness Longfield and the two panellists had been recommended by Baroness Casey following “recent engagement with victims” and would meet survivors later this week.

But one of the survivors who quit the inquiry in October, Fiona Goddard, told the BBC no one on the panel “had any consultations about these candidates”, signalling that their involvement had been “just a box-ticking exercise”.

She also criticised the selection of Baroness Longfield, who was appointed to the House of Lords in January and will resign the Labour whip to chair the inquiry.

Ms Goddard said: “The fact they have chosen someone so closely connected with the Labour government raises serious concerns over how impartial and independent this inquiry will be.”

Another victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the BBC it was “about time” a chair was appointed, and that she liked Baroness Longfield.

But she added: “What if nothing changes? You hear with these big inquiries that recommendations are made, but they’re not always implemented.”

The inquiry will comprise a series of targeted local investigations into the group-based child sexual exploitation of girls by grooming gangs, overseen by a national panel. As a statutory inquiry, it will have more powers – such as requiring people to testify and release other forms of evidence.

Mahmood said one of these would be in Oldham, Greater Manchester, with the other locations to be decided.

No area will be able to “resist” a local investigation during the inquiry, she added, which would last three years with a budget of £65m under draft terms of reference, which will be consulted on and confirmed by March 2026.

The inquiry will also “explicitly” consider the backgrounds of offenders, including their ethnicity and religion, Mahmood said, and “whether the authorities failed to properly investigate what happened out of a misplaced desire to protect community cohesion”.

She noted that Baroness Casey’s audit concluded that in some local areas a “disproportionate” amount of suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation were from Asian ethnic backgrounds where sufficient police data had been collected.

“Like every member of my community who I know, I am horrified by these acts,” said Mahmood.

“The sickening acts of a minority of evil men – as well as those in positions of authority who looked the other way – must not be allowed to marginalise or demonise entire communities of law-abiding citizens.”

Baroness Casey’s report also found that ethnicity data was not recorded for two-thirds of cases, meaning it was not robust enough to support conclusions about offenders at a national level.

Mahmood said she had commissioned new research to “rectify the unacceptable gaps” in this area, and that she would draft a law as soon as possible so that police had to gather ethnicity data.

She added that the government was working to disregard prostitution offences levelled against some victims with its Crime and Policing Bill.

Responding in the Commons, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called for an apology from the prime minister for having “disgracefully smeared those calling for an inquiry as far-right” earlier this year.

In January, Sir Keir Starmer dismissed calls for a national inquiry, arguing the scandal had already been examined in a seven-year inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay.

He also suggested those calling for an investigation were “jumping on a bandwagon” and “amplifying” the demands of the far-right”. The scandal had returned to prominence partly because of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was criticising the prime minister for not calling a national inquiry.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch meanwhile said progress on the inquiry was welcome but survivors have been waiting too long for an inquiry they can trust.

The inquiry was thrown into chaos in October when four women resigned from its survivors liaison panel in protest at how the government had handled the process so far.

They called for Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips to resign, accusing her of “betrayal” for denying claims the investigation might be broadened beyond grooming gangs.

They also expressed doubts about two candidates proposed to chair the inquiry because one had a background in social work and the other as a senior police officer – two professions facing questions about trust.

At the time, Phillips denied claims of a cover-up and insisted the government was “committed to exposing the failures”.

Five others abuse survivors wrote to the prime minister to say they would only continue working with the inquiry if Phillips kept her job.

In the Commons on Tuesday, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin said the party welcomed the announcement and that victims would be “properly consulted”.

She asked whether Phillips would be called as a witness in the inquiry, claiming victims had “lost all confidence” in her.

Mahmood said she hoped politicians would “elevate beyond party political point-scoring” and focus on delivering justice for victims.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Max Wilkinson said his party welcomed Mahmood’s statement but said questions remained, such as how the inquiry would remain “free from political influence”, earn the trust of victims and their families, and “avoid stigmatising entire communities” while thoroughly investigating the matter.