Grooming gangs scandal timeline: What happened, what inquiries there were and how Starmer was involved – after Elon Musk’s accusations

Published

7 months ago

January 7, 2025

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The grooming gangs scandal is back in the headlines after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir Starmer and minister Jess Phillips for failing children.

The tech billionaire has accused Sir Keir of being “complicit” in the failure of authorities to protect victims and prosecute abusers while the PM was director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013.

Sir Keir has hit back at Musk, saying his record shows how he tackled the issue head-on.

Politics latest: Former child abuse inquiry chair says new inquiry not needed

The row started after it was revealed last week safeguarding minister Jess Phillips rejected calls from Oldham Council for a government inquiry into historical grooming gangs in the town, with Ms Phillips saying the council should lead an inquiry instead.

She has since hit back after Mr Musk’s subsequent attacks on her.

Sky News looks at a timeline of the grooming gangs scandal, inquiries and Sir Keir’s role.

How did the grooming gangs scandal unfold and what prosecutions have there been?

2001: Names of taxi drivers who allegedly picked up girls from care homes in Rotherham to abuse them are passed to the police and council from 2001. The first convictions were not until 2010, with the latest in 2024 – a total of 61.

2004: A Channel 4 documentary about claims young white girls in Bradford were being groomed for sex by Asian abusers is delayed as police forces warn it could inflame racial tensions. It was finally shown three months later.

2010: 11 men, predominantly of an Asian background, are convicted of offences connected with the sexual exploitation of children in Derbyshire.

2011: Times journalist Andrew Norfolk starts receiving tip-offs about child sexual exploitation by predominantly Asian men in Rotherham. It was his insistence on pursuing the story, despite being called racist and concerns the far-right would latch on to it, that eventually led to a national inquiry.

2011: A girl abused by a grooming gang in Huddersfield writes a letter to a judge about the abuse she had suffered. It was not until 2013 that another victim came forward to police to make formal allegations, then dozens of girls and men were interviewed over the next three years. Victims and their families said they repeatedly told police and authorities but nothing happened.

2011: Operation Bullfinch is launched by the police and council in Oxford to look into a child sex abuse ring in the city. The first convictions are secured in May 2013, then 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020.

May 2012: The first grooming gangs convictions of men from Rochdale and Oldham see nine found guilty of being part of a child sexual exploitation ring run out of two takeaways in Greater Manchester since 2008. A further five from the Rochdale area were jailed the following year.

May 2013: Seven men have been jailed, it emerges, at the conclusion of child sex abuse trials relating to offences in the Telford area.

2014: 13 men are convicted of the sexual exploitation of children in Bristol at the conclusion of Operation Brooke.

2017: A total of 29 men from a Huddersfield grooming gang are charged but a reporting restriction prevents media from reporting on the case to avoid prejudicing other cases. The ban was criticised by far-right groups, with Tommy Robinson – also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – jailed for 13 months (later reduced to nine months) after admitting contempt for filming outside a court during the trial.

2018: Twenty men, mainly of Pakistani origin but the ringleader was Sikh, who were part of the Huddersfield child sex abuse ring are convicted of 120 rape and abuse offences against 15 girls, and sentenced to a total of 221 years.

Three separate trials had to be held as there were so many of them. More men have been convicted since then, bringing the total number to 41 by August 2021.

2023: A Grooming Gangs Taskforce is set up by Rishi Sunak’s government, with qualified officers from all 43 police forces in England and Wales, and data analysts. In May 2024, 550 suspects had been arrested and 4,000 victims identified.

2023: Nine further men are charged with sexual offences in Rotherham under Operation Stovewood. Most of the offences took place between 2003 and 2008.

2024: Operation Stovewood sees 11 more men from Rotherham convicted for the abuse of vulnerable girls.

What inquiries have there been?

There have been 10 inquiries and reports into the grooming gangs.

2013: The Home Affairs Select Committee publishes a report into the Rochdale cases, finding the failure to protect children fell to police, social workers and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors.

2014: An inquiry into grooming gangs in Rotherham, led by Professor Alexis Jay and commissioned by the council in 2013, finds 1,400 children were sexually abused between 1997 and 2013 by predominantly British-Pakistani men.

Then home secretary Theresa May commissions the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales following the Jimmy Savile scandal. Professor Jay became the chair after three others resigned.

2015: A West Midlands Police report from 2010 is released publicly after a Freedom of Information request by the Birmingham Mail.

It shows police knew five years before that Asian grooming gangs were targeting children outside schools in Birmingham but were worried about community tensions if it was made public.

2015: A report into Rotherham Council’s handling of child sexual abuse, commissioned by the government and led by Baroness Casey, finds the council had a bullying, sexist culture of covering up information and silencing whistleblowers.

A new police inquiry into child sexual abuse in Rotherham is launched, with 19 men and two women convicted in 2016 and 2017 of sexual offences dating back to the late 1980s.

2015: A serious case review by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership finds 373 children (including 50 boys) could have been groomed and sexually exploited in the city. It accused Thames Valley Police of not believing children when they complained.

2019: An independent review into historic child sexual exploitation in Oldham shisha bars from 2011 to 2014 is commissioned by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham after Oldham council requested it.

2020: The Home Office refuses to release research into grooming gangs as it said it is not in the public interest. Following public pressure it releases the report, which finds no credible evidence any one ethnic group is over represented in child sexual exploitation. It is branded a whitewash by critics.

2022: The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Professor Jay is published after 12 years. It finds police and councils downplayed the scale of the problem and children were often blamed for their abuse.

It makes recommendations, including mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by people working with children, the establishment of a national financial compensation scheme for victims “let down by institutions” and the creation of a child protection authority.

2022: Oldham councillors called for a government inquiry into grooming gangs in the town but the Conservative government rejected it and said the local authority should commission a review.

2022: Greater Manchester’s inquiry into Oldham grooming gangs was released. It found the police and council failed to protect vulnerable children and covered up their failings.

2022: The Telford independent inquiry was published and found more than 1,000 children in the town were sexually exploited and the abuse was allowed to continue for years, with children often blamed.

The inquiry found issues were not investigated because of nervousness about race, with teachers and youth workers discouraged from reporting child sexual exploitation.

2024: Oldham councillors again called for a government inquiry but safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said the council had to carry it out.

What is Sir Keir Starmer’s involvement?

2008-2013: Sir Keir Starmer was director of public prosecutions (DPP), head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which conducts criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, for five years.

2009: The CPS was criticised for not prosecuting Rochdale grooming gang suspects in 2008 and 2009. It said the main victim was “unreliable” so dropped the case.

2010-2011: In that financial year, child sexual abuse prosecutions reached 4,794 – the highest during Sir Keir’s time as DPP. In 2016/17, nearly there were nearly 7,200 prosecutions.

2011: The decision to not prosecute in Rochdale was overturned by Nazir Afzal, chief prosecutor for northwest England, appointed by Sir Keir.

2013: A Home Affairs Committee report said unlike other agencies, the CPS had “readily admitted victims had been let down by them and have attempted both to discover the cause of this systemic failure and to improve the way things are done so as to avoid a repetition of such events”.

The report added: “Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as DPP.”

Maggie Oliver, a former Manchester detective and whistleblower, told the BBC the CPS “bears a great deal of responsibility for the failures around this issue”, including bringing inadequate charges and blaming victims.

2013: Sir Keir revised guidance on child sexual exploitation to make future prosecutions easier. Before, victims may not have been viewed as credible if they had not complained immediately, if they had used drugs or alcohol, or dressed and acted in particular ways.

2013: The Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel was created by Sir Keir to review CPS decisions not to bring charges or terminate proceedings after 5 June 2013.

What has Elon Musk said?

The billionaire, who posts on X, which he owns, many times every day, has also given a series of interviews, and has commented on the grooming gangs and child sex exploitation cases in the past. He has shown support for both Reform and Tommy Robinson and began to post about the grooming gangs scandal regularly, in response to others, in late December and early January.

31 December: In response to an X post referencing the grooming gangs and claiming “out of political correctness, the government did everything it could to cover up the crimes”, Mr Musk replied: “The government officials responsible, including those in the judiciary, need to fired in shame over this”

In response to a post that claimed that “Parents who attempted to rescue their children were arrested when the police arrived”, he said on X: “So many people at all levels of power in the UK need to be in prison for this.”

1 January: Then, after a series of other posts responding to people expressing similar views, including sympathy for Tommy Robinson and support for Reform, he responded to a post saying “Labour’s Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding, refused to back a public inquiry into child exploitation in Oldham” by saying: “Shameful conduct by Jess Phillips. Throw her out.”

2 January: He responds to a poster by calling for a new election, then…

He posts: “In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service’s approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013

“Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer. The real reason she’s refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Stamer (head of the CPS at the time).”

Responding to a post criticising what someone called the legacy media, he said: “This is the same media that hid the fact that a quarter million little girls were – still are – being systematically raped by migrant gangs in Britain. They are beneath contempt. Despicable human beings.”

3 January: In response to a post talking about the cost of another public inquiry, he says: “No UK government inquiry for the gang rape of innocent little girls, but £22M spent on an obviously violent lunatic. Shame, shame, shame.”

He went on to accuse Keir Starmer of being “guilty of complicity” and accusing Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.

4 January: He responded to an article in The Daily Telegraph, which claimed to show how the grooming scandal was “covered up”, by saying “How the rape of Britain was covered up” and then later added: “The sniveling cowards who allowed the mass rape of little girls in Britain are still in power … for now”.

Politics

Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones announces defection to Reform UK

Published

26 mins ago

July 22, 2025

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Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones announces defection to Reform UK

Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has joined Reform UK, the party has announced.

The announcement of the party’s first member of the Senedd was made on Tuesday at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, Powys.

The annual event is Europe’s largest agricultural show and attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Laura Anne Jones was initially a member of the Senedd for the South Wales East region between 2003 and 2007, before returning in 2020.

She is the second high-profile defection from the Conservative party, after former cabinet minister David Jones joined the party earlier this month.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said the latest defection was a “big step forward for Reform UK in Wales”.

Speaking at the news conference, Ms Jones said she had been a member of the Conservative party for for 31 years but that the party was now “unrecognisable to [her]”.

She said the Conservative Party “wasn’t the party that [she] joined over three decades ago” and that she could “no longer justify” party policy on the doorstep.

Ms Jones said Wales was “a complete mess” and that she now wanted to be “part of the solution not the problem”.

Reform is still without a leader in Wales, but Ms Jones did not rule herself out of the running for that position.

The defection comes with less than a year to go until the Senedd election, when voters in Wales will elect 96 members to the Welsh parliament for the first time – an increase of more than 50%.

Recent opinion polls have shown Reform UK and Plaid Cymru vying for pole position, with Labour in third and the Conservatives in fourth.

Ms Jones said she had not notified the Conservative Party of her defection before the announcement.

The party’s Senedd leader Darren Millar said he was “disappointed” with the announcement and that Conservative members and voters would feel “very let down by her announcement”.

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Politics

Republicans propose 7% leaner SEC budget compared to Biden’s era

Published

6 hours ago

July 22, 2025

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Republicans propose 7% leaner SEC budget compared to Biden’s era

House Republicans have proposed a plan to trim the SEC’s budget and cut enforcement funding for a Biden-era rule requiring public companies to quickly report cyberattacks.

Politics

The wealth tax options Reeves could take to ease her fiscal bind

Published

9 hours ago

July 22, 2025

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The wealth tax options Reeves could take to ease her fiscal bind

Faced with a challenging set of numbers, the chancellor is having to make difficult choices with political consequences.

Tax rises and spending cuts are a hard sell.

Now, some in her party are calling for a different approach: target the wealthy.

Is there a way out of all of this for the chancellor?

Economic growth is disappointing and spending pressures are mounting. The government was already examining ways to raise revenue when, earlier this month, Labour backbenchers forced the government to abandon welfare cuts and reinstate winter fuel payments – blowing a £6bn hole in the budget.

The numbers are not adding up for Rachel Reeves, who is steadfastly committed to her fiscal rules. Short of more spending cuts, her only option is to raise taxes – taxes that are already at a generational high.

For some in her party – including Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, the solution is simple: introduce a new tax.
They say a flat wealth tax, targeting those with assets above £10m, could raise £12bn for the public purse.

Yet, the government is reportedly reluctant to pursue such a path. It is not convinced that wealth taxes will work. The evidence base is shaky and the debate over the efficacy of these types of taxes has divided the economics community.

Why are we talking about wealth?

Wealth taxes are in the headlines but calls for this type of reform have been growing for some time. Proponents of the change point to shifts in our economy that will be obvious to most people living in Britain: work does not pay in the way it used to.

At the same time wealth inequality has risen. The stock of wealth – that is the total value of everything owned – is much larger than our income, that is the total amount of money earned in a year. That disparity has been growing, especially during that era of low interest rates after 2008 that fuelled asset prices, while wages stagnated.

It means the average worker will have to work for more years to buy assets, say a house, for example.

Left-wing politicians and economists argue that instead of putting more pressure on workers – marginal income tax rates are as high as 70% for some workers – the government should instead target some of this accumulated wealth in order to balance the books.

The Inheritocracy

At the heart of it all is a very straightforward argument about fairness. Few will argue that there aren’t problems with the way our economy is functioning: that it is unfair that young people are struggling to buy homes and raise families.

Proponents of a wealth tax say that it would not only raise revenue but create a fairer tax system.

They argue that the wealth distortions are creating a divided society, where people’s outcomes are determined by their inheritances.

The gap is large. A typical 50-year old born to the poorest 20% of parents in the UK is already worth just a quarter of what someone born to the richest 20% of parents is worth at that age. This is before they inherit anything when their parents die.

A lot of money is passed on earlier; for example, people may have had help buying their first home. That gap widens when the inheritance is passed on. This is when inheritance tax, one of the existing wealth taxes we have in the UK, kicks in.

However, its impact in addressing that imbalance is negligible. Most people don’t meet the threshold to pay it. The government could bring more people into the tax but it is already a deeply unpopular policy.

Alternatives

So what other options could they explore?

Lord Kinnock recently suggested a new tax on the stock of wealth – one to two percent on assets over £10m. That could raise between £12bn and £24bn.

When making the case for the tax, Lord Kinnock told Sky News: “That kind of levy does two things. One is to secure resources, which is very important in revenues.

“But the second thing it does is to say to the country, ‘we are the government of equity’. This is a country which is very substantially fed up with the fact that whatever happens in the world, whatever happens in the UK, the same interests come out on top unscathed all the time while everybody else is paying more for getting services.”

However, there is a lot of scepticism about some of these numbers.

Wealthier people tend to be more mobile and adept at arranging their tax affairs. Determining the value of their assets can be a challenge.

In Downing Street, the fear is that they will simply leave, rendering the policy a failure. Policymakers are already fretting that a recent crackdown on non-doms will do the same.

Critics point to countries where wealth taxes have been tried and repealed. Proponents say we should learn from their mistakes and design something better.

Some say the government could start by improving existing taxes, such as capital gains tax – which people pay when they sell a second property or shares, for example.

The Labour government has already raised capital gains tax rates but bringing them in line with income tax could raise £12bn.

Then there is the potential for National Insurance contributions on investment income – such as rent from property or dividends. Estimates suggest that could bring in another £11bn.

This is nothing to sniff at for a chancellor who needs to find tens of billions of pounds in order to balance her books.

By the same token, she is operating on such fine margins that she can’t afford to get the calculation wrong. There is no easy way out of this fiscal bind for Rachel Reeves.

Whether wealth taxes are the solution or not, hers is a government that has promised reform and creative thinking. The tax system would be a good place to start.