At the time Starmer hit out at political opponents, and took aim at the Conservatives who he said had “sat in government for many years” and were now “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right.”
On Monday, Cooper issued an “unequivocal” apology to victims for their “unimaginable pain and suffering,” and for the “failure of our country’s institutions through decades to prevent that harm and keep you safe.”
The findings had “identified a deep-rooted failure to treat children as children, a continued failure to protect children and teenage girls from rape, from exploitation and serious violence and from the scars that last a lifetime,” she added.
Accepting a raft of recommendations from Casey, Cooper said: “We have lost more than a decade. That must end now.”
Asylum-seekers pursued
Immigration enforcement would also “immediately pursue” suspects of abuse who are asylum-seekers, Cooper said.
In a potentially incendiary passage of her report, Casey said a significant proportion of live police operations into grooming gangs, which could not be included in the report for fear of prejudicing future court proceedings , appeared to “involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.”
In the Commons, Cooper said “those who groom children or who commit sexual offenses will not be granted asylum in the U.K.,” citing planned changes in the law to exclude anyone convicted of a sexual offense from being given refugee status.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the ruling Labour Party had changed its position only after “months of pressure,” including from her own team.