A trafficker was seen whipping migrants onto a UK-bound boat.

A trafficker was seen whipping migrants onto a UK-bound boat.

Despite the latest big scary number, this is not a new phenomenon.

Despite the latest big scary number, this is not a new phenomenon.

The Home Office has announced a nationwide police operation tackling grooming gangs ahead of the release of a major report into the issue.

Sir Keir Starmer confirmed on Saturday a national inquiry will be held into institutional failings that led to thousands of children being sexually exploited by gangs across the UK.

The move came after the Prime Minister spent months insisting a series of local probes would be sufficient to get to the bottom of the problem.

Travelling to the G7 summit in Canada, Sir Keir said he now believed an inquiry was ‘the right thing to do’ after reading ‘every single word’ of a report by Baroness Louise Casey.

Her report, which will call for a full statutory inquiry, is due to be published this afternoon following a statement in the House of Commons from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

It will state some victims were ‘institutionally ignored for fear of racism’, according to the Times.

Cooper has pre-empted the release by announcing an operation to be headed by the National Crime Agency (NCA), tracking down gang members who have abused children.

She said it was ‘wrong and unforgivable’ that not enough people listened to the vulnerable young girls who fell victim to groups of adult men.

The Home Office previously asked police to look again at grooming gang cases which closed ‘too early’, resulting in more than 800 such cases being identified.

In January, Labour MPs were whipped to oppose a proposition to set up a national inquiry into grooming gangs tabled by the Conservatives in a House of Commons vote.

However, the amendment was set up in a way that meant voting to pass it would mean killing the government’s major Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, making it extremely difficult for Labour to support.

Opposition parties including the Tories and Reform have been calling for a full-scale inquiry for months, with the issue gaining widespread attention after billionaire Elon Musk repeatedly posted about it on his social media site X at the start of the year.

The Tesla boss, who worked in a high-profile White House role at the time, suggested Sir Keir Starmer should be arrested among dozens of highly critical posts.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who failed to launch an inquiry during her time in government, said: ‘Keir Starmer doesn’t know what he thinks unless an official report has told him so.

‘Just like he dismissed concerns about the winter fuel payment and then had to u-turn, just like he needed the Supreme Court to tell him what a woman is, he had to be led by the nose to make the correct decision here.

‘I’ve been repeatedly calling for a full National Inquiry since January. It’s about time he recognised he made a mistake and apologised for six wasted months.’

Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham where some of the most high-profile grooming gang cases were based, said the thought of another inquiry initially ‘filled [her] with horror’ but her mind was changed by the ‘overwhelming public concern’.

Appearing on the BBC’s Today Programme this morning, Champion said: ‘I have an intense frustration that, not the frontline staff but further up the management chain, there were people who were actively blocking reports.

‘People who I think, if not held to a criminal standard, should be held to a professional standard for their negligence in protecting those children.’

This morning, three men denied raping a teenage girl in Rotherham between 2008 and 2010.

Khamir Ifzal Khan, Mudasser Hussain and Ghazanfar Hussain were arrested as part of the NCA investigation into child sexual exploitation in the Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013, named Operation Sherwood.

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Home Office Minister Jess Phillips told Metro: ‘As a parent, that is my worst nightmare.’

Keir Starmer introduced a raft of new measures to bring down immigration.

The social care sector faces a ban on overseas recruitment.

Jess Phillips told Metro the government will ‘use every tool at our disposal to take predators off our streets’.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said a new law allowing police officers who fail vetting to be automatically sacked will help heal ‘damaged’ public trust.

The law change will mean passing background checks becomes a legal requirement for all servicing officers across England and Wales.

Cooper told Metro the move would end the ‘extraordinary’ situation where those with ‘a history of allegations of domestic abuse, sex offending or other concerning intelligence’ have been able to keep their job.

Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: ‘The ability to hold a vetting clearance is the most basic indication of whether someone can be trusted to hold the extensive and often intrusive powers that police officers are given. It was never right that an officer could lose their vetting, but not lose their job.

‘These reforms close that glaring gap in the law and will allow us to move swiftly to remove those who have no place in policing.

‘This matters not just for the public we serve but for the vast majority of hardworking officers who should be able to feel safe, have full trust in those they work alongside and have the confidence of the public.’

Those words were echoed by the Home Secretary, who said: ‘Public trust in policing has been damaged in recent years, as a result of very serious cases where officers fell below all proper policing standards, yet essential action wasn’t taken to remove them.

‘The whole point of vetting is to identify the risk someone might pose to the public, to their colleagues, or to the force.

‘So it is just extraordinary that until now an officer who has failed vetting because they have a history of allegations of domestic abuse, sex offending or other concerning intelligence has been able to remain in policing.

‘That must change. We came into office last year on a manifesto commitment to boost public confidence in policing, and that is why in our first months in government we have announced major reforms to ensure the highest standards are maintained.’

She continued: ‘That starts with ensuring that those who fail vetting can be dismissed.

‘Later this year we will be further strengthening national vetting standards and ensuring there’s a legal requirement that every force follows them.

‘Officers suspected of violence against women and girls should have no place working with the public, and we will make it easier to suspend them in these cases.

‘We will also ensure convictions for serious criminal offences will automatically lead to gross misconduct and an expectation that these officers will be fired.’

The new system for dismissals will come into effect on May 14, the Home Office said.

An independent review last year called for the police vetting system to be overhauled followed the conviction of Wayne Couzens for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Other high-profile incidents, like the case of serial rapist David Carrick, have raised questions about the standard of police background checks.

The Home Office said the current situation means officers can stay in the force on full pay even if it is decided they are not fit to face the public.

Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vetting, said: ‘Police officers and staff should always be held to the highest standards and we must ensure that only those who are suitable to wear the uniform enter, and remain in policing.’

He added: ‘We welcome the announcement today of statutory vetting regulations, which provide clear routes for action to remove individuals who fall below the high standards the public and our workforce rightly expect and deserve.’

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The information is expected to become available later this year.

The exemption is almost certain to be included in the government’s new Crime and Policing bill.

‘People would be shocked by what’s being held back.’

British lawyers acting on behalf of Hamas are challenging the Palestinian military group’s proscription as a terrorist organisation in the UK.

It is a move considered unthinkable just months ago. As Israel’s 18-month war on Gaza rages indiscriminately after shattered its ceasefire, Hamas is formally asking the Home Office to remove it from the list.

A 106-page legal applicationsubmitted by Riverway Law to home secretary Yvette Cooper is appealing against the designation.

It argues that it is not a terrorist group but ‘a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project’.

It also claims the ban breaches Hamas supporters’ human rights under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) by ‘unlawfully restricting’ their freedom of speech and rights to protest. 

Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of international relations for Hamas, and the applicant for the claim, said in a statement to Drop Site News: ‘The UK government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century.

‘Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people.

‘It is perhaps out of colonial guilt that Britain fears that one day, those it oppresses will strike back against the sponsors of the Zionist entity. Britain should have no such fear.’

When was Hamas proscribed as a terror group in Britain?

The military wing of the group, which is behind the October 7, massacre on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people, has been on the list since 2001.

At the time, the UK aligned itself with the US-led ‘war on terror’.

When it added Hamas as a whole to the list in 2021, the Home Office said: ‘The government now assess[es] that the approach of distinguishing between the various parts of Hamas is artificial.

‘Hamas is a complex but single terrorist organisation.’

Legally, this means it is a criminal offence to belong to or invite support to the groups.

The legal team argues proscription is contrary to Britain’s obligations under international law to prevent genocide and the crimes against humanity it accuses Israel of.

It says the group is the ‘only effective military force resisting’ such acts.

What is a proscribed organisation?

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Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the home secretary may proscribe a group if they believe it is concerned in terrorism, and it is proportionate to do.

For the purposes of the act, this means that the organisation commits or participates in acts of terrorism; prepares for terrorism; promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism); and is otherwise concerned in terrorism.

Penalties for proscription offences under sections 11 and 12 are a maximum of 14 years in prison and/or a fine.

The maximum penalty for a section 13 offence is six months in jail and/or a fine not exceeding £5,000.

Who is on Britain’s proscribed terror group list?

Currently, there are 81 group the UK government considers as ‘terrorist’ and which are proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Some of the most notorious organisations on the list include the Nigeria-based Boko Haram, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

There are also 14 organisations in Northern Ireland that were proscribed under previous legislation.

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The Passport Office is putting its prices up yet again.

The Passport Office is putting its prices up yet again.