VICTIMS of child sexual abuse were given a full apology today by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as she accepted the recommendations in Louise Casey’s report.

“The sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes,” she said.

Baroness Casey’s review was commissioned by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government and makes 12 recommendations in a 200-page report.

Ms Cooper told MPs that further local investigations are needed, but they should be directed and overseen by a national commission with statutory inquiry powers.

She said: “Baroness Casey is not recommending another overarching inquiry, of the kind conducted by Professor Alexis Jay, and she recommends that the inquiry should be time-limited.

“But its purpose must be to challenge what the audit describes as continued denial, resistance and legal wrangling among local agencies.”

The Home Secretary said the law would be changed “so that an adult having penetrative sex with a child under 16 is rape — no excuses, no defence.”

The report also recommends a national police operation and inquiry to review criminal convictions of victims of child sexual exploitation.

Any convictions will be quashed where the government finds that victims were criminalised instead of protected.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch drew condemnation from MPs for not joining the apology to victims and directly blaming the Prime Minister.

Ms Badenoch accused Sir Keir of “an extraordinary failure of leadership” and said the worst cases happened in Labour-run areas.

The Home Secretary hit back, saying Ms Badenoch had failed to read the report, which covered the last 16 years, 14 of which which her party had been in government.

Ms Cooper also told MPs that the ethnicity and nationality of suspects in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases will be recorded on a mandatory basis for the first time.

The Home Secretary said the data collected until now was insufficient, only being noted for 37 per cent of suspects.

“Baroness Casey’s audit confirms that ethnicity data is not reported for two-thirds of grooming gang perpetrators,” Ms Cooper said.

The Home Secretary said there would be mandatory sharing of data between agencies, and the government will commission research into the cultural and social drivers of child sexual exploitation, misogyny and violence against women and girls.