State Department warns UK over grooming gang handling: 'Unspeakable abuse'

The Trump administration has issued a stern critique of the United Kingdom regarding its approach to mass immigration and the ongoing issues surrounding grooming gangs, which have predominantly targeted white girls across the nation.

Highlighting these concerns, the U.S. State Department shared a statement on X, urging its European diplomats to monitor the repercussions of rampant immigration. While the statement focused on the U.K., it also noted similar challenges facing Germany and Sweden.

The State Department’s directive emphasized, “U.S. embassies are tasked with assessing the human rights implications and public safety concerns linked to mass migration. The reports will also cover policies that penalize citizens who oppose continued mass migration and document crimes and abuses committed by individuals with a migration background.”

A significant point of the statement was the reference to “grooming gangs” composed largely of Pakistani men, who have been exploiting young girls for years with minimal governmental intervention.

The statement from the State Department underscored, “In the United Kingdom, thousands of girls have been victimized in areas like Rotherham, Oxford, and Newcastle by grooming gangs involving migrant men. These girls endured years of unimaginable abuse before authorities took action.”

Following the release of this statement, GB News reported that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking at the G20 summit in South Africa, assured reporters that the national inquiry into these issues would be thorough and exhaustive, promising to “leave no stone unturned.”

The State Department’s warning comes weeks after several victims, members of the independent inquiry, resigned over what they claimed was a continuation of a cover-up. 

One abuse survivor, Ellie Reynolds, told cable channel GMB that the existence of grooming gangs has been “brushed under the carpet” and that “our voices have been silenced.”

She was supported by fellow survivor Fiona Goddard, who was groomed from the age of 14 and said that when she spoke out for help she was dismissed as a “child prostitute” by authorities.

Starmer at podium giving defense announcement

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a visit to the BAE Systems’ Govan facility, in Glasgow, Scotland, June 2, 2025.  (Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)

Goddard resigned to protest the cover-up, saying members of the grooming gangs near Bradford were in the “vast majority … Pakistani men.”

Successive governments — both Conservative and Labour — have been dealing with the revelations for years that a number of grooming gangs, often consisting mostly of men of South Asian or Pakistani heritage, have sexually exploited girls for decades across the north of England.

UK Parliament in London, England.

A British Union Jack flies from a souvenir stall near the Houses of Parliament in London Oct. 27, 2025. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Prior to the inquiry, Starmer had commissioned a national audit led by Baroness Louise Casey earlier this year. 

On the hot-button issue of the backgrounds of the criminals, the Casey report stated in part, “We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data.

“Despite the lack of a full picture in the national data sets, there is enough evidence available in local police data in three police force areas which we examined which show disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as in the significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews and high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country, to at least warrant further examination.”

Rochdale grooming gang victim at her home in England

A woman poses at her home in England Jan. 8, 2025. She was 14 when she was sexually abused by a grooming gang in Rochdale, England. (Hollie Adams/Reuters)

Her audit also identified other perpetrators, including White British, European, African or Middle Eastern individuals.

The results of the audit produced 12 recommendations for the government, which have been implemented, including a national inquiry to “direct local investigations and hold institutions to account for past failures.” 

But the Starmer government has been set back by a failure to appoint a chair for the inquiry, and it has faced resignations as critics have accused the Labour government of covering it up for political reasons.

Alan Mendoza, founder of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital “successive governments” have allowed “gangs of largely South Asian Muslims to target White British girls, claiming “the Labour government doesn’t want to be seen as stigmatizing demographics or potentially losing votes.”

“I hope that the inquiry will focus more specifically on the real issue plaguing the U.K. over the last 20 years,” Mendoza added.

Protesters call for action by Oldham council over grooming gangs.

A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs outside the council offices at City Center Jan. 20, 2025, in Oldham, England.  (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

The point person for the government’s inquiry is Labour member of Parliament Jess Phillips, who has served as the parliamentary undersecretary of state for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls since July 2024.

However, Phillips is facing heavy scrutiny over how she’s handling the setup of the inquiry.

Asked in Parliament about the nature of the inquiry and whether it will address the perpetrators’ ethnicity, she vowed to be transparent.

“There is absolutely no sense that ethnicity will be buried away,” Phillips said. “Every single time that there is an apparently needless delay — even though it took seven months to put in place chairs for both the COVID inquiry and the blood inquiry, and nobody moaned about that — it gets used to say that we want to cover something up. That is the misinformation I am talking about. It will not cover things up. We are taking time to ensure that that can never happen.”

Elon Musk weighed in on the matter in a series of X statements earlier this year, stating that Phillips was a “rape genocide apologist” and that the world was witnessing “the worst mass crime against the people of Britain ever.” 

Phillips told the BBC that Musk’s comments were “disinformation” and “endangering” her but said it was nothing compared to what the victims of the abuse had faced. 

Commentators say the challenge for the government now is to find those credible and willing to bring justice and lasting change so it won’t happen again.

Fox News Digital reached out to Phillips’ office but received no response.
 

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