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A former chief prosecutor and a police whistleblower who uncovered a notorious paedophile gang have hit back at demands from senior Conservatives and the billionaire Elon Musk for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
Nazir Afzal, the ex-chief prosecutor who was central to successful prosecution of the Rochdale grooming gang, said lengthy and expensive inquiries were not acted upon by the previous Conservative government.
Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester police to speak out about police failings in child exploitation, said she did not want to hear more “empty promises and political manoeuvrings”.
Their comments follow a growing row started by Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of Donald Trump, who called for a national inquiry in the UK and accused Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute child rapists in Oldham in Greater Manchester.
Musk’s intervention came as part of a long stream of posts on his own platform, X, late on Wednesday night, which included supportive comments about Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist who is in jail for contempt of court.
Musk began posting after seeing reports that Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, had rejected calls from Oldham council for a public inquiry into child exploitation in the town.
Phillips argued that it should be up to local councils to commission new inquiries, sparking criticism from Conservatives including Kemi Badenoch.
“The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal,” the Tory leader posted.
It later emerged her own party had also rejected a national inquiry while in government.
A leaked letter shows that in September 2022, the then minister for safeguarding, Amanda Solloway, wrote to an Oldham councillor dismissing a request for a public inquiry. “It is for the local authorities in individual towns and cities which are responsible for delivering local services, to commission local inquiries,” she wrote.
Afzal, who overturned a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute the Rochdale gang, said a national overarching inquiry into child abuse was published in 2022, but its findings were ignored by the Tory government. That report found children in Oldham were failed by agencies that were meant to protect them amid alleged grooming by “predominantly Pakistani offenders”.
Led by Prof Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups after multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010 and 2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.
A Labour spokesperson said the government is “working at pace to implement the recommendations” in Jay’s report.
“We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse, which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated.”
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Afzal said: “There has been an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, the catalyst for which was so-called grooming gangs. It cost millions and the last government failed to accept much of its recommendations.
“There has also been an inquiry headed up by [the former Conservative home secretary] Sajid Javid for the Centre for Social Justice which they ignored too,” he told the Guardian.
“Local independent inquiries of the sort carried out in Telford are more likely to achieve safer streets and protect victims.”
Oliver, who left the police to speak out about the lack of protection for victims, told the Guardian: “We’ve already had a national abuse inquiry – seven years, 20 recommendations and none implemented.
“We need someone who is going to do something not just talk – more empty promises and political manoeuvrings.”
Meanwhile, senior Labour ministers say they believe the row has underscored the need for the government to leave X altogether, arguing it has become a tool for misinformation since Musk bought it.
One MP said: “[Musk] has pushed it too far this time. Twitter [now X] is really rapidly becoming a cess pit, even for disinterested non-partisan types.”
