{"id":213482,"date":"2025-10-20T16:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/213482\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:11:07","slug":"sadiq-khan-humiliated-as-met-police-makes-huge-grooming-gangs-u-turn-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/213482\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan humiliated as Met Police makes huge grooming gangs U-turn | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Metropolitan Police has made a stunning U-turn by admitting for the first time it has a \u201cvery significant number\u201d of grooming gang investigations after being presented with the findings of an Express and MyLondon investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Campaigners told the Express they were relieved to hear the Met \u201cacknowledge what so many of us have been saying for years\u201d and claimed it showed the force had realised there was \u201cno point lying anymore\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to the London Assembly on Thursday, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley reversed years of denials by stating the force had a \u201csteady flow\u201d of live multi-offender child sexual exploitation probes in addition to a substantial volume of historic cases.<\/p>\n

Just 24 hours earlier, we\u2019d pressed the Met on how many cases were being reinvestigated as a result of the Home Office\u2019s grooming gangs review. And, after refusing to answer our question, Rowley told the regional assembly that they had so many cases to re-examine that the costs would be \u201cmany\u201d millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of cases is going to be very significant,\u201d he said in response to a question from Labour Assembly Member Len Duvall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to do a full investigative review and reinvestigations of them all that is going to be many, many, many millions of pounds. Millions of pounds a year for several years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now, the Metropolitan Police has denied that the capital has a problem with grooming gangs.<\/p>\n

As recently as February, Rowley told Lord Bailey of Paddington \u201cI cannot guarantee there is something out there that we have not seen\u201d in response to the former mayoral candidate asking if London has \u201ca significant problem around child sexual exploitation gangs\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That position changed after the force was presented with findings of an Express and MyLondon<\/a> investigation that showed Sadiq Khan had read and responded to Met Police inspection reports with victim case studies that experts ruled had \u201ctypical\u201d and \u201ctextbook\u201d grooming gang patterns.<\/p>\n

One of those who examined our evidence was Rochdale whistleblower detective Maggie Oliver, who said the findings had prompted \u201ca spark of honesty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter decades of denying the existence of the \u2018grooming gang\u2019 type of child abuse in London this expose by the Express is finally forcing at least a spark of honesty from those who would prefer to cover it up,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 180-degree \u2018turn around\u2019 replicates what I have seen in my 13 years of exposing similar failures and cover ups in Rochdale, Manchester, Barrow and many other areas throughout the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just the latest example of how facing personal threats yet still speaking out and focusing on those complicit on this corruption and cover ups in high places is gradually breaking down the walls of our public institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018People power\u2019 is forcing the Met to finally tell the truth, even though they fight and lie right up to the point where they know the truth is out, so there\u2019s no point in lying anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this thorough expose in the Express is the latest example of how these lies are being exposed – but tragically it is far too late for all those victims who have been blamed, abandoned and discredited by our protective agencies as they prefer to protect their organisation rather than tackle the monsters in these gangs who are destroying so many innocent lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Wild, who has warned for years that the capital has grooming gangs, said this was a belated acceptance of what had been obvious on-the-ground all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has spent over a decade on the frontline and written two books exposing the failings within children\u2019s social care, I\u2019m relieved to finally hear the Metropolitan Police acknowledge what so many of us have been saying for years \u2014 that grooming gangs are a serious and ongoing problem in London,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should never have taken countless journalists and years of ignored warnings for this truth to be accepted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Metropolitan Police\u2019s recognition is long overdue. Now words must turn into action. Frontline workers, victims, and communities deserve more than apologies \u2014 they deserve justice, accountability, and lasting change.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “We understand the very real concern the public have around so-called grooming gangs and treat all allegations of sexual offences and exploitation extremely seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur data shows the group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation picture in London is more varied than in other parts of the country and does not neatly align with patterns of methodology, ethnicity or nationality seen elsewhere and reported on extensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are utterly committed to protecting vulnerable children and bringing those responsible to justice. There is still much work to be done, including encouraging reporting of offences so we have the fullest possible picture, but we have made significant improvements in the past decade to enable us to do that effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mayor of London has yet to comment on the Met\u2019s U-turn. Speaking about the Home Office\u2019s grooming gangs review in June<\/a> he said there was \u201cno indication\u201d that any of the cases were in the capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan Police has made a stunning U-turn by admitting for the first time it has a \u201cvery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[92013,924,59,57,58,16968,3282,50,14751,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-213482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-child-sexual-exploitation","tag-crime","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-grooming-gangs","tag-metropolitan-police","tag-news","tag-sadiq-khan","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}