Euan McColm: Issue of child sex exploitation must be put ahead of party politics

There are some issues that truly – necessarily – transcend party politics. Matters where cooperation across all existing divides is the only option.

The need to address the failure of police and local authorities to recognise and then intervene in the systematic rape of children by members of grooming gangs – and the men to whom they were sold – clearly qualifies as such an issue.

There are no points to be scored here. Or, at least, there shouldn’t be.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement, last week, that an inquiry into grooming gangs would go ahead, came after months during which the Government’s position was that no such thing was required.

If it appears politicians have been dragged to this point against their will it’s because they have. It suited the Prime Minister not to have an inquiry into the state’s failure of vulnerable children right up until the point that position became untenable.

Speaking to the BBC after Cooper’s announcement, Sir Keir Starmer defended his decision to hold an inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales after previously accusing those calling for one of jumping on a “far right” bandwagon. He had commissioned a report into the issue by Dame Louise Casey in order to “double check” the issue and, having read her conclusions, he believed an inquiry was now necessary.

This, said the Prime Minister, was a “practical common sense way of doing politics”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch fired shots at the PM over his past position. He had made things political with those “far right” claims.

But Badenoch went on to concede that her party had not done enough, while in power, to address the problem of grooming gangs. This was something she had apologised for.

The truth is that, when it comes to the inadequacy of their responses to the widespread abuse of children by grooming gangs, Labour and the Conservatives share a fragile glass house. Both are guilty of past inaction. Both have amends to make. Their petty “he-did-it-no-she-did-it” sniping is an indulgence.

Concerns about the sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs south of the border emerged in 2010 when five men from the Asian community in Rotherham were jailed for sexual offences against a number of underage girls. Those convictions sparked a local inquiry which uncovered systematic abuse on a horrifying scale in the town, with an estimated 1,400 children exploited between 1997 and 2013 by men predominantly of Pakistani heritage.

A later report by Baroness Alexis Jay warned of “endemic” abuse in communities across England and Wales.

Here in Scotland, reports of grooming gangs – involving both Asian and white men – began appearing almost quarter of a century ago. This was never a problem solely for communities south of the border.

But it was that high profile Rotherham case which finally brought focus on to an issue to which authorities had previously turned a blind eye.

We know that a number of factors played into this appalling betrayal of children being put through unimaginable horror.

There was the fear that to raise to concerns about the behaviour of certain men would be to invite accusations of racism. There was also the characterisation of victims as complicit.

Some children were viewed as “sex workers” – as if they possessed even a grain of agency.

While details of cases across England emerged, Scottish politicians began looking at the situation north of the border.

In March 2013, Holyrood’s public petitions committee announced the launch of an inquiry into the sexual exploitation of children.

In November 2014, SNP ministers were lambasted for failing to come up with a promised action plan for tackling the problem.

The failure of victims by the state is a UK-wide phenomenon.

While the inquiry announced by Yvette Cooper will look at cases in England and Wales, it is up to First Minister John Swinney to decided how the Scottish Government should approach this matter.

Asked about his plans, Swinney said the ongoing Scottish child abuse inquiry – currently examining the appalling treatment meted out to some children while in the “care” of the state – had “extensive scope and ability to explore many or all of these issues”. There would, he added, be “other processes of inquiry that are undertaken when that’s appropriate”.

What a lot of hot air.

The current child abuse inquiry is looking at similar but different issues to those thrown up by the cases of the victims of grooming gangs. Swinney is quite wrong to think otherwise.

And he is complacent, indeed, if he seriously thinks that the possibility of “other processes” is enough to satisfy understandable public anger over the abuse of children.

The UK Government cannot force a public inquiry into grooming gags onto Scotland. It is up to Swinney to decide whether to ask for the inquiry announced to by Cooper to be extended to cover cases here, to announce an independent Scottish inquiry, or to do nothing.

When he comes to his senses and realises this is an issue that won’t go away, the First Minister should choose the first option.

The things that allowed grooming gangs to get away with their crimes – fear of being branded racist, an institutionally misogynistic view of victims as responsible for their circumstances – exist across these islands. Scotland is not exempt from this horror.

The public inquiry announced by the UK Government is needed. Scotland’s inclusion is essential.

If ever there was a moment for the UK and Scottish Governments to come together, this is it.

John Swinney must pick up the phone and invite Yvette Cooper to extend the grooming gang inquiry to include Scotland. And he must guarantee the full cooperation of his government in what will be a harrowing but entirely necessary process.