Keir Starmer must move the conversation on child sexual exploitation away from sensationalism to support for victims who have had help and protection reduced in recent years, charities, campaigners and experts have said.
A joint statement, whose signatories include government services contractors such as the Salvation Army and the Snowdrop Project, says changes in the law have made it harder for survivors to be recognised as victims and to access support services.
Their intervention comes after the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced an urgent national review of the scale of grooming gangs and a series of other measures to tackle them.
The move followed increasing pressure on the government to act since the issue was taken up by the billionaire Elon Musk on his social media platform, X. Ministers have denied that they would not have acted if Musk had not spoken out.
The statement, signed by more than 60 charities, law firms and academics, among them the Survivors Trust and Hope Not Hate, will be shared with Starmer but is aimed at politicians of all stripes.
It says: “We call for those in the public eye to help us move the national conversation and action towards the needs of victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation. Child sexual exploitation is recognised as a form of modern slavery and child abuse. Yet, child protection and children’s services have been cut back, while a number of support systems have been dismantled through laws restricting survivors’ access to help.
“If we do one thing, it must be to identify children at risk and win the trust of victims scared to come forward. Yet, the UK is currently failing. Child victims and survivors (including victims of non-recent childhood exploitation) now face higher evidence thresholds, before they can be recognised or receive support, compared to two years ago.
“To make matters worse, stealth changes to definitions of sexual exploitation now make it even harder for victims of non-recent sexual exploitation to be supported or considered as victims.”
According to After Exploitation, which led on the joint statement, 43% of recorded child victims of sexual exploitation in the UK were non-UK nationals, and the statement says “survivors and perpetrators of modern slavery can be from any nationality, gender, age or background”.
Criticising the “politicisation” of the discourse, Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation, this month lamented the very little mention of “the appalling and lifelong effects that child sexual abuse can have on people”.
On Friday, Lisa Nandy defended the government’s decision to act and denied they were forced to do so by Musk’s intervention. “I utterly refute that,” the culture secretary told Sky News when asked about the billionaire’s interest in the scandal.
“We’re not a government that governs by social media,. We brought forward the children’s wellbeing bill a couple of weeks ago – that’s legislation that we announced quite significantly in advance of any noise that we saw on social media.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
