Baroness Louise Casey says failing to confront ethnic patterns in child abuse scandals emboldens racists.

Baroness Louise Casey has warned that avoiding uncomfortable truths about the ethnicity of grooming gang offenders only plays into the hands of racists and extremists.

In a blunt interview on Politics with Sophy Ridge on Sky News, the crossbench peer said the data from her latest inquiry showed a “disproportionate” number of suspects involved in group-based child sexual exploitation in England were men of British Asian background — and that ignoring this fact allows the far-right to flourish.

“If we just establish the facts, you can take the pain out of this,” said Baroness Casey, who led the government-commissioned report. “You’ve got sort of do-gooders that don’t really want this to be found because, you know, ‘Oh God, then all the racists are going to be more racist.’ Well, actually, people that are racist are going to use this anyway.”

Her report, based on an audit of abuse cases in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, found that suspects from Asian backgrounds were significantly overrepresented in group-based abuse. The study focused on ethnic patterns and the social and cultural factors driving this type of organised sexual exploitation — a topic previously side-stepped in national reviews, including the seven-year Jay Inquiry.

Baroness Casey said that political and social sensitivities had created a culture of fear among frontline professionals. In one example from Rotherham, she discovered a child protection file where the word “Pakistani” had been covered with correction fluid.

“I thought, whoever did that inadvertently gave ammunition to the English Defence League, who were in and out of that town every week,” she said. “If good people don’t grasp difficult things, bad people will — and that’s why we have to do this as a society.”

The government has responded by announcing a full statutory inquiry into grooming gangs — something ministers previously resisted. They also accepted Baroness Casey’s recommendation for mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data in child sexual abuse investigations, and will review police records to identify missed suspects in historic cases.

The shift in approach comes after intense public pressure, including a political clash earlier this year involving Elon Musk, which reignited scrutiny of the grooming gangs issue. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had pledged during the general election campaign to “do what the Tories wouldn’t” and pursue full accountability — a promise now taking shape.

Baroness Casey insisted her findings were not politically motivated. “This isn’t about party lines,” she told Ridge. “It’s about protecting children and confronting the facts.”

She also called for legal reforms to close loopholes around the age of consent. Perpetrators, she noted, were known to delay attacks until victims turned 13, making prosecutions more difficult. “I think we have to be really clear: children are children,” she said. “If someone does what I describe in the report to a child under 16 — it’s rape, and we need to call it what it is.”

Baroness Casey’s comments come amid growing awareness of past failings by public bodies to protect vulnerable children, particularly in towns like Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford. Her report directly challenges the narrative that previous grooming scandals were unrelated to ethnicity, pointing instead to systemic reluctance to confront cultural dynamics within certain communities.

The peer argued that transparency and honesty — rather than denial — are essential to undermining the far-right and restoring public trust.

“You don’t beat racists by hiding facts,” she said. “You beat them by facing up to the truth and doing the right thing.”

THE GUARDIAN

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a legal overhaul to ensure adults cannot use “consent” as a defence when charged with raping a child under 16. This follows the damning Louise Casey audit into grooming gangs, which revealed cases were downgraded because 13- to 15-year-olds were wrongly perceived as consenting. Cooper confirmed the government will adopt all 12 recommendations from Casey’s report, including ensuring children are seen as victims, and amending laws so convictions against exploited children are expunged. The Home Office will also mandate police to collect ethnicity and nationality data in child sexual abuse cases—something Casey argued was essential to protect communities from far-right exploitation and ensure accountability. Cooper dismissed claims the inquiry was only prompted by Conservative pressure. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Starmer announced a new investigation into grooming gangs and confirmed he would meet Donald Trump one-on-one at the G7. The national inquiry is expected to last three years and coordinate with local investigations.

THE TELEGRAPH

Baroness Louise Casey’s official audit into grooming gangs has revealed that a “significant proportion” of current police investigations involve foreign nationals and asylum seekers. Commissioned after renewed outrage earlier this year, the 200-page report criticised authorities for failing to learn from past scandals like Rotherham and accused police and councils of covering up the scale of abuse to avoid allegations of racism. Casey found that ethnicity and nationality data were often ignored, hindering accountability. She reviewed about a dozen live cases and noted many suspects were asylum seekers or non-UK nationals. The Office for National Statistics and Ministry of Justice still don’t track crimes by immigration status. In response, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to reject asylum claims from those guilty of child grooming, while also mandating ethnicity and nationality data collection for all suspects. Conservative Chris Philp blamed the government for failing to secure borders and called for tougher deportation measures to prevent abusers exploiting asylum or human rights laws.