Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government would also conduct a “rapid” review into child sexual abuse in the UK.

The UK government has announced it will support a new local inquiry into child sex abuse and examine the extent of child sexual exploitation in the UK, after US tech billionaire Elon Musk criticized the historic grooming scandal. Quick” review.

The scandals involve the sexual exploitation of vulnerable girls by organized groups from the 1980s until at least the 2010s. An investigation in 2014 found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The issue was at the center of a political firestorm last week. war of words Conflict broke out between Musk and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer was Britain’s attorney general when the scandal broke.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday the government would set a timetable for implementing the 20 recommendations of a national inquiry to be published in 2022, but would also further support new local inquiries.

“Despite all these national inquiries, reports and hundreds of recommendations, too little action has been taken and shamefully little progress has been made,” Cooper told parliament.

She stopped short of announcing a new national public inquiry into the scandal, which Musk and the opposition Conservatives have called for.

“This is a step in the right direction, but the results will speak for themselves,” Musk wrote on X, retweeting the government’s announcement about the new measures.

These historic scandals have long been exploited by those on the far right, especially those who are incarcerated. Tommy RobinsonMusk, one of Britain’s most prominent far-right activists, has praised him.

in a postal In the content shared on X, Musk claimed that Robinson was in jail “for telling the truth” and “should be released.” Musk also described Starmer’s security minister Jesse Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist”.

Starmer responded that “those who spread lies and misinformation as widely as possible are not interested in the victims, they are only interested in themselves” without mentioning Musk by name.

Musk’s tirade, which included calls for a new public inquiry into the scandal, prompted some within the opposition Conservative Party to join calls for a new national inquiry.

“Locally relevant answers”

Yvette Cooper told parliament on Thursday she had ordered a rapid three-month audit into the scale and nature of current gang exploitation across the country.

She added that the review would look at the “cultural and social drivers” of child sexual abuse and “appropriately examine the ethnic data and demographics of the gangs involved and their victims”.

Cooper noted that several local reviews similar to those already underway would be launched, rejecting calls from the opposition Conservatives for a new national inquiry.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has repeatedly clashed with the prime minister over calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, insisted: “I don’t think local inquiries are enough.”

“As we’ve seen, effective local surveys can delve into more local detail and provide more locally relevant answers and changes than lengthy national surveys,” Cooper said.