TORY leader Kemi Badenoch was warned against trying to play politics with the “grooming gang” scandal by report author Louise Casey.

Dame Louise slammed Ms Badenoch’s partisan response to the government’s announcement that a national inquiry into the issue will now be held, after months of resisting such a move.

She said: “I’m disappointed by it, to put it mildly. I felt the opposition could have just been a bit, ‘Yes, we will all come together behind you.’ 

“It almost doesn’t matter right now what political party people are part of. We’ve identified there’s a problem, it’s been a problem a long time, and it’s about time we drew a line in the sand.”

There is no sign that Ms Badenoch was listening, since she immediately called a press conference to trumpet her view that the U-turn was entirely due to Tory pressure.

This is despite the fact that the last Tory government did nothing to implement the recommendations of previous probes into the crisis. 

Not in the mood for apologies, the Tory leader denied playing politics and ranted to the media: “No-one here has asked me for more apologies.

“They have heard the apologies. Apologies are easy. What we need to see is action,” she added, despite having demanded an apology from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer the day before.

Casey appeared before a Commons committee to expand on her report, urging improved data collection on child sexual exploitation.

“If you look at the data on child sexual exploitation, suspects and offenders, it’s disproportionately Asian heritage. If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men,” she said.