Keir Starmer summoned to grooming gangs inquiry in December

Keir Starmer has been summoned to give evidence to the national inquiry into grooming gangs, with hearings due to begin in the middle of December and continue for several months. The move follows a political reversal: at the start of the year the Prime Minister criticised calls for a national inquiry, saying some politicians were jumping on a "bandwagon of the far right". He later asked Louise Casey to conduct an audit of whether anything had been missed. After reading her report in full, he accepted her recommendation that there should be a national inquiry.

The inquiry is expected to have statutory powers to call witnesses and question them. Contributors to the coverage said there was no point holding an inquiry without those powers. They also argued that the hearings should examine Starmer's record as director of public prosecutions, as well as the conduct of police, councils and other public bodies in towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale.

The discussion described the offences as mass rape gangs and said the scandal had shamed the country and shocked other countries that such abuse could happen. It focused on the length of time the abuse continued and the number of people who must have known. It also raised the failings of police and social services, and said victims were often not heard because of institutional sexism, classism and fear of being accused of racism.

The broadcast heard claims that most victims were white working-class girls and that many of the men involved were of Pakistani heritage. It was also argued that child sexual abuse is too often intimate violence in the home, and that national statistics on victims and perpetrators are not accurate. Contributors said the inquiry should clarify the causes of the abuse and whether the system still needs changes.

There was also discussion of whether inquiries lead to action. One contributor said Britain is "obsessed with inquiries", spending hundreds of millions of pounds and taking multiple years, while other countries take less time. Several contributors said implementation of recommendations matters as much as the inquiry itself. The hope was that clear answers about why victims were ignored would lead to changes that benefit society.