Failure to report child sex abuse to become criminal offence amid grooming gangs row
Professionals who work with children will face criminal sanctions if they fail to report claims of sexual abuse, the home secretary has announced.
Yvette Cooper promised to implement the key recommendation from Professor Alexis Jay’s child sexual abuse inquiry after Sir Keir Starmer faced down calls from Elon Musk, the Tories and Reform UK for a new investigation into paedophile grooming gangs.
Ms Cooper said the mandatory reporting measure will be put in the Crime and Policing Bill due to come before parliament this spring, with professional and criminal sanctions for those who fail to comply.
She attacked the Tories for failing to introduce the law while they were in government, saying she first called for it in 2014 after it emerged around 1,400 girls were abused in Rotherham between 1997-2013.
“This is something I first called for in response to the reports and failings in Rotherham 10 years ago,” Ms Cooper told MPs.
“It’s something that the prime minister first called for 12 years ago, based on his experience as director of public prosecutions, and the case was clear then. But we’ve lost a decade and we need to get on with it now.”
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Grooming gangs: What happened?
Ms Cooper said this was one of three “key recommendations” the government would implement from the Jay report, alongside making grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences and creating a new performance framework for policing “so these crimes are taken far more seriously”.
She also announced a new “victims and survivors” panel to help with work around child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The panel will come alongside a “significant package of measures” to be outlined next week, including strengthening the law on AI-facilitated child sexual abuse images, Ms Cooper said.
Prof Jay’s Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up in 2015 by the then Conservative government and carried out 15 investigations, including into grooming gangs and abuse in schools and the church.
The IICSA’s final report was published in 2022 and set out 20 recommendations it said were necessary to reduce child suffering, but charity The Survivors Trust say that two years later, none have been fully implemented.
Musk’s attacks on Starmer
The issue has come back into the spotlight following a slew of social media posts from Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, who has accused Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” during his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013 in relation to grooming gangs.
The billionaire owner of X has also suggested Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped across a number of towns in England – including Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford – over a decade ago in a national scandal that was exposed in 2013.
In a letter to Oldham Council dated last October but which emerged this week, Ms Phillips said that while she recognised the “strength of feeling” over the matter, she believed it was for “Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene”.
The row prompted by Mr Musk’s comments has also seen Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch call for a “full national inquiry” into rape gangs and defend shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick after he tweeted that “importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women” had led to the grooming scandal.
Reform UK are also calling for a national inquiry, while the Tories are seeking to put the issue to a vote later this week.
Shadow policing minister Chris Philp said the previous investigation was mainly directed at other child sexual abuse and exploitation issues and “we need to get to the truth” on grooming gangs specifically.
However, Yvette Cooper said it was the Conservatives who set the terms of reference of the IICSA inquiry and provided “substantial funding for it”.
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PM on Musk: A line has been crossed
The debate in the Commons also heard from the Labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh, who said some people were treating child rape as a “political game” rather than as an “appalling crime”, and said they were “exploiting” what happened in his town.
On Monday, Sir Keir accused the Tories of “amplifying what the far-right is saying” and “jumping on the bandwagon” to gain attention, saying the party had failed to implement the recommendations of Prof Jay’s report during their final years in office.
He also hit out at “those that are spreading lies and misinformation” in response to attacks on Ms Phillips, saying they are “not interested in victims only themselves”.
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European leaders hit back at Musk
The prime minister is not the only European leader to criticise Mr Musk.
In a speech on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron referenced his backing for Germany’s far-right AfD party and increasing interventions in European politics, framing it as a challenge to democratic values.
France’s Emmanuel Macron also criticised Mr Musk’s interventions. Pic: Reuters
“Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” Mr Macron said.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said he is staying “cool” after Mr Musk criticised him after his coalition collapsed in November.
The Tesla boss also backed AfD in an opinion piece in a German newspaper.
On Saturday, Mr Scholz told magazine Stern there was “nothing new” in criticism by “rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics and do not hold back with their opinions”.
He added: “I find it much more worrying than such insults that Musk is supporting a party like the AfD.”
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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