The Tories have added an amendment to the crime and policing Bill to require ministers to start “a national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs” within three months.

Police forces and prosecutors have historically failed to take action against groomers, some of whom are of British-Pakistani origin, amid fears they would be branded racist or Islamophobic.

While head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Keir admitted in 2012 that in “a number of cases presented to us” there was “an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed”, saying that prosecutors must not “shy away from that”.

The Home Office has not denied the inclusion of illegal migration in the report. A government spokesman also refused to deny that the report would be linking the grooming scandal with illegal immigration.

They said: “Nothing is more important than protecting vulnerable children, and we are determined to crack down on vile grooming gangs once and for all.

“That’s why we ordered a rapid national audit to uncover the true scale of this horrific abuse.

“This report – alongside our response – will be published shortly.”

‘No excuse left’ for Starmer

Responding to reports that Lady Casey will advise the Government to launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs, Kemi Badenoch said: “If Baroness Casey is now calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, it proves what I’ve been saying all year: only a full statutory inquiry will expose the truth, bring justice for survivors and stop this evil from happening again.

“Yet every time we’ve called for action, Keir Starmer has said no. He’s put process over justice, legal caution over moral clarity. If Casey joins survivors and the Conservatives in demanding an inquiry, the Prime Minister will have no excuse left.

“Starmer must stop being a lawyer and start being a leader.”

Group-based grooming, which is classed by police as a form of child sexual exploitation, accounted for 717 offences reported to police in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024.

Grooming represents 17 per cent of group-based child sexual offences, with the biggest threats to children being abuse within the family or by other children.

Group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 4,228 offences, or 3.7 per cent of all 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes in 2023, including online.

It comes as seven men were convicted on Friday of sexually exploiting two white teenage girls in Rochdale, Lancashire.