Shabana Mahmood reveals grooming gangs inquiry is 'effectively up and running' - and sets date for formal launch

Key Highlights

• It's in the draft terms of reference.
• READ MORE ON GROOMING GANGS: Probe launched into police officers who 'threatened Rotherham rape gang victim'Pakistan demands political dissidents in Britain in exchange for grooming gang abusersLabour U-turn as court archive now told to STOP deleting vital data used to track grooming gangsFormer children's commissioner Baroness Longfield was named as chairwoman of the inquiry | PA"She's already consulting with victims and survivor groups to make sure they're happy with the draft terms of reference, that they're expansive enough to deal with a full range of horrifying issues that we saw in that scandal.
• And then once those are finalised, the inquiry will be up and running."Once it's fully up and running and hearing evidence, I think we'll be able to show victims and survivors that finally there's a chance of a proper process that gives them the answers that they absolutely deserve."Ms Mahmood also warned that the UK must not head down a path of sectarian politics after a divisive by-election in Gorton and Denton when the Greens were criticised for producing campaign videos in Urdu. The Greens used images like this to campaign in Gorton and Denton's Pakistani community | GREEN PARTYShe said that while she always campaigned in English, "people do speak other languages as well"."I speak other languages," she said.
• "Sometimes you do converse in other languages when you're on the doorstep.
• It's not necessarily divisive, but what I think is actually really important is that we don't we don't go down a track of sectarian politics."It's really important for politicians to have something to say to every type of voter in an area, not just one type of voter in a specific area."As somebody from an ethnic minority myself, I was always trying to build a broad coalition, because I think that's in our pluralistic traditions and that's the best of British."And I think that's the way that campaign should be done.