The first PMQs of 2025 was dominated by one issue – whether there should be a national inquiry into child sexual abuse by grooming gangs.

• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch suggested the public will start to "worry about a cover-up" if Starmer resists calls for a national inquiry
• The prime minister said many inquiries, local and national, have already taken place and he wanted to focus on "action"
• Badenoch said there are thousands of victims, but "no-one has joined the dots", claiming "it is almost certainly still going on"
• Starmer said he could not recall Badenoch calling for an inquiry in recent years when she was children’s minister and women’s equalities minister, accusing her of jumping on a "bandwagon"
• He also accused the Conservatives of failing to act on recommendations made at a previous inquiry into the issue, though Badenoch defended her party's record
• The PM's spokesman said afterwards that the government would remain "open-minded" about the prospect of further inquiries and listen to local authorities

The row is set to continue, with the Conservatives forcing a vote on the issue in Parliament as MPs debate the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill – but that effort is unlikely to pass, given Labour's large majority in the Commons.

We're ending our live coverage now. You can read our political editor Chris Mason's snap analysis of the exchanges, and you can read a more detailed look at this story from the politics team.

The prime minister's spokesperson says the Labour government "will always remain open-minded" and "listen to local authorities who want to take forward inquiries" relating to grooming gangs.

Asked whether Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips' suggestion that nothing was off the table to deal with the legacy of the scandal, he replies: "The PM's position is the same as Jess Phillips', which is we are open of course and will always listen to what victims want in this case."

"What we have heard from our engagement with victims and survivors group is they want to see action. That is why we are focused on following up the recommendations of Prof Alexis Jay and taking the actions we need to deliver justice," the spokesperson adds.

"Significant" engagement with victims' groups shows "they do not want to see a national inquiry, they want action taken to deliver justice", the spokesperson says.

He adds: "We will always listen to local authorities who want to take forward inquiries, or indeed further allegations that need to be followed up."

We can now bring you Downing Street's response to the Conservatives forcing a vote on whether to establish a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

As we mentioned in our previous post, the Tories have put forward an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will be voted on (though it's unlikely to pass).

The prime minister's official spokesman reiterates the argument Starmer made at PMQs earlier, saying: "A vote for this amendment is a vote to kill the bill.

"It would be a vote against legislation that would keep the very children safe."

Starmer and Badenoch disagreed at Prime Minister's Questions over a Tory amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently being debated in the Commons.

The wide-ranging bill includes:

• measures to protect vulnerable children, such as tougher rules around home-schooling and support for those in care
• inspections of schools, changes to academies, and regulation of private education institutions

The Conservatives are bringing forward an amendment to the bill to call for ministers to establish a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs.

While the proposed amendment would stop the children's bill in its tracks if it were passed, it is not expected to pass because of the Labour government's large majority.

The Tory amendment will be put to a Commons vote tonight. Watch the debate live at the top of this page.

Mims Davies, Conservative MP and shadow women's minister, strongly disagrees that the indication that the Tories "weren't on the front foot" of the grooming gangs scandal.

She says the grooming gang taskforce led by Suella Braverman and the work done on modern slavery by Theresa May are evidence of the Conservative Party taking this issue seriously.

Speaking on Politics Live, Davies says Oldham's request for a government-led inquiry was a "cry for help that wasn't heard" by home affairs minister Jess Phillips.

"She is the minister, and the power is in her hands," Davies tells the programme.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says "we've got to stop politicising" the issue of child abuse.

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Live programme, she says she first met Keir Starmer while working with child victims when he was the director of public prosecutions.

"He was the only senior figure who took it seriously, who changed the law and made sure we protected the children," she says.

She adds that child abuse, "by its very nature, is hidden and there's always more to come out".

"Our message to the victims of child abuse is that the door is open, if there's more to say, if there's more to be learned, then we're determined to learn it," she says.

"Let's not pretend" that anyone senior, including Kemi Badenoch, calling for a national inquiry now asked for one over the last 14 years, Nandy adds.

"We've got to stop politicising the issue," she says. "It is disgraceful."

Did child abuse report mention Rotherham only once?published at 13:11 Greenwich Mean Time 8 January

13:11 GMT 8 January

Talking about why she thinks a new national inquiry is needed into grooming gangs, Kemi Badenoch said the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), which concluded in October 2022, “wasn’t about the rape gang scandal”.

She said: “in its 468 pages it mentioned Rotherham just once”.

Rotherham was one of the worst examples of grooming gangs, with a 2014 report finding at least 1,400 girls had been abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs there between 1997 and 2013, external.

While the 468-page final report from the IICSA does indeed only mention Rotherham once, it was not the only report from the inquiry, external.

In February 2022, the inquiry team also published an investigation report into child exploitation by organised networks, which mentioned Rotherham 22 times in its 193 pages., external

In the last few days Elon Musk has generated headlines calling for a new UK-wide inquiry into gangs committing child sexual abuse - despite a wide-ranging independent probe having concluded its work in 2022.

Following the latest session of PMQs the owner of X has posted on the social media platform.

"Please call your member of parliament and tell them that the hundreds of thousands of little girls in Britain who were, and are still are, being systematically, horrifically gang-raped deserve some justice in this world," Musk says.

"This is vitally important or it will just keep happening."

Image source, PA Media

Image source, UK Parliament/PA

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch have finished their fiery exchanges, which focused on whether there should be a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.

• First up, Badenoch asked the PM about the "decades-long rape gangs scandal" and if the "full extent of rape gang activity" was known. Starmer highlighted local and national inquiries which have already happened, and said: "What is needed now is action on what we already know"
• Badenoch said there are thousands of victims, but "no-one has joined the dots or has the total picture... and it is almost certainly still going on," she claimed
• The Conservative Party leader said: "One victim from Telford says she wants a national inquiry because it will hold people accountable in a way that previous inquiries have not"
• Starmer said the Conservatives didn't act on recommendations that they accepted from the Jay inquiry. He said he called for action 11 years ago: "They've been tweeting and talking, we've been acting"
• He said Badenoch had only recently "jumped on the bandwagon", adding that when she was in power he could not recall "her once raising this issue in the House, once calling for a national inquiry". Badenoch said she has raised this issue "in speeches and publicly"
• Badenoch then asked Starmer: "The PM called for nine inquiries in the last Parliament. Does he not see that by resisting this one, people will start to worry about a cover-up?"
• Starmer said the focus should be on victims, adding: "These lies and misinformation and slinging of mud doesn't help them one bit". He said another seven-year inquiry would take us to 2031, adding that such an investigation cannot be hurried
• Responding to Starmer's claim that he confronted the motivation behind the abuse "head on", Badenoch said the issue was not about Starmer or his former work with the Crown Prosecution Service, but about the victims. "Be a leader, not a lawyer," she told him
• Both agreed that the grooming gang scandal is "one of the worst in recent British history". The back and forth ended with Starmer calling the Tories' approach "bandwagon-jumping"

Image source, House of Commons

The final question comes from Tory MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich Sir Roger Gale who asks the PM why - when he was director of public prosecutions - did he decline to prosecute former Harrod's owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

"That case never crossed my desk," Starmer replies.

And that brings an end to the first PMQs of the year - stay with us and we will bring you the latest analysis.

Chris Mason
Political editor

As the prime minister arrived in the Commons chamber, he tapped Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips on the shoulder.

Before a word had been spoken, the row about child sexual exploitation was dominating PMQs.

And so it continued in the exchanges between Starmer and Badenoch.

At the core of the exchanges, whether there should be a public inquiry into what has happened.

The PM sought to try to take the heat out of things by acknowledging there are honestly held differences of opinion on this question.

But the heat is there – without question.

The government is determined to bat away calls for another inquiry, arguing it would take years and years and the focus now should be action.

Kemi Badenoch argued the scale of the depravity demanded further investigation.

Later today, there will be a vote in the Commons on a planned new law which ministers argue will help protect vulnerable children.

The Conservatives will use it to argue for a public inquiry.

Labour MPs will reject that and the government will win, given its colossal majority.

But the argument isn’t going away – the Tories have set up an online petition to try to harvest public opinion on the issue, to heap more pressure on ministers.

Image source, House of Commons

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn commends Starmer on his answers to Badenoch earlier as the two debated the merits of a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Flynn then pivots to the government's decision to cut winter fuel payments, saying that outside of the Commons energy bills continue to rise while temperatures plummet.

Starmer says he has made "tough decisions" in the Budget, but that it delivered the largest settlement to Scotland since devolution began, and questions if Flynn would reverse it.

Image source, House of Commons

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey says fixing what he describes as the care crisis is urgent for millions of elderly disabled people and family carers.

He asks if the PM will speed up work in this sector so that in 2025 "we will finally rise up to the challenge of fixing care?"

Starmer replies by saying that the government has taken "immediate action" - including providing more funding for social care and increasing carer's allowance.

Moving to her final question, Badenoch says the "PM has effectively told us he is not able to do two things at the same time".

"This is one of the worst scandals in recent British history," Badenoch says. "But how are they [MPs] going to explain to their constituents that obeying his [Commons] whip is more important than doing the right thing?"

Starmer replies by saying not once in eight years did Badenoch stand in the Commons and "say what she just said".

He finishes by calling it a "bandwagon-jumping" approach by the Conservatives, adding that it is "short-sighted" and "misguided".

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says this is not about Starmer or his former work with the CPS, but about the victims. "Be a leader, not a lawyer," she tells him.

She says people were scared to tell the truth because they didn't want to be called racist, and claims a definition of Islamophobia accepted by Labour suggests grooming gang discussions could be Islamophobic.

Starmer again says another inquiry will delay things until 2031. "We already know what the major flaws are... so we should get on with that action," he tells the Commons.

Badenoch says it is possible to have shorter inquiries into grooming gangs, adding that it would not have to repeat work already been done.

A national inquiry would look at whether there was "a racial or cultural motivation" behind the abuse, she says.

Starmer replies that when he headed the Crown Prosecution Service, he took measures to confront this head-on.

The first of the mass prosecutions of an "Asian gang" was in Rochdale, he tells the Commons.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says a national inquiry is important because the issue of abuse is "systemic".

This cannot be dealt with by local inquiries alone, she says, adding that "people will worry about a cover-up" if such an inquiry does not happen.

Starmer replies by saying that "lies and misinformation" and "slinging of mud" do not help people.

He says another seven-year inquiry would take us to 2031, adding that such an investigation could not be done in a hurry.

He says victims he has spoken to want action now, not another inquiry.

The Tory leader gets back to her feet and persists with her line of questioning of a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Badenoch says she is shocked to hear the prime minister say actions were not taken under the previous government.

"He knows full well we accepted 18 of the 20 recommendations in the Jay Inquiry and went further launching launching a gangs taskforce," Badenoch says, adding that work still needs to be done.

She says there are thousands of victims "but no one has joined the dots, no one has the total picture".

"One victim from Telford says she wants a national inquiry because it will hold people accountable in a way that previous inquiries have not."

She asks why the PM will not listen to victims and launch a national inquiry.

In his reply, Starmer says the Tories didn't enact the recommendations which they accepted.

He says he called for action 11 years ago: "They've been tweeting and talking, we've been acting".

"She was the children's minister, women and equalities minister. I can't recall her once raising this when she was in power," Starmer answers, adding that "it is only in recent days she has jumped on the bandwagon".

Image source, House of Commons

Responding to Badenoch's first question about whether he knows the full extent of the "rape gang scandal", Starmer replies that there have been been local inquiries as well as Professor Alexis Jay's national inquiry.

He says 20 recommendations came out of that national inquiry, "none of which, actually, were implemented by the party opposite while they were in government".

He says there are mixed views among victims about the merits of a further inquiry, but adds: "What we need now is action."

Image source, House of Commons

Kemi Badenoch begins by asking about the "decades-long rape gangs scandal".

She says Sir Keir Starmer is right to say there has been an inquiry into "child sexual abuse", but she complains that it "wasn't about the rape gang scandal".

She asks if the PM is confident we know the full extent of "rape gang activity".