I have campaigned for over a decade on the issue of rape gangs sexually abusing children and young girls. It is a stain on the nation that justice has still not been done.

When I first raised this appalling scandal in 2012, I was accused by those on the liberal left of trying to exploit it for political gain.

I believe this was a tactic to shut down legitimate debate, probably because so many of the rapists were of Pakistani origin and highlighting this would shatter the idea of multicultural Britain being a bed of roses.

Had some parts of the media not tried to muzzle certain people back then, perhaps more could have been done sooner to stamp out the criminal activities of the predators who ruined so many lives.

I am told there could be as many as 50 towns and cities in England who have been affected by this evil.

Something similar is going on now. Sir Keir Starmer seems to be trying to sweep the past failures of the establishment under the carpet by denying calls for a statutory inquiry into this outrage.

He says Professor Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was “comprehensive”. I would call it a whitewash.

Starmer, of course, was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013, when many of these gangs were active. For the sake of public confidence, urgent questions must be answered about his conduct – and that of the Crown Prosecution Service – during every one of those years and beyond.

The only proper forum is a statutory inquiry.

It has to be said that the Conservatives had more than 14 years in government when they could have ordered the type of inquiry that I think is needed to really lance the boil. They flunked it.

Only now they are in opposition have they latched on to having a national inquiry. Talk is cheap. Why didn’t they do the right thing when they were in power? I’m afraid they have no credibility when it comes to this issue.

The perpetrators of these crimes are often called members of “grooming” gangs. This term tends to sanitise the evil which they committed. It is time to start calling them what they are: rape gangs. This will sound strong to some, but it is impossible to overstate just how twisted their actions were.

Targeting children, plying them with drink and drugs, and then passing them around multiple men takes planning and premeditation. These crimes were carried out with intent.
Millions of Britons hold genuine concerns about these terrible events that have blighted our country. Having these views does not make them “far right”.

For anyone to suggest they are motivated by an extreme political ideology is despicable.
Nothing less than a national inquiry into this scandal will do.