The grooming gangs in the United Kingdom are once again in the spotlight following a new investigation that has uncovered how minor girls are falling victim to forced prostitution by these elements on the streets of London. Nevertheless, Mayor Sadiq Khan of Pakistani descent appears to be not only indifferent to this critical issue but has also reportedly attempted to conceal the harsh reality of the presence of such gangs in the capital of England, as reported by Tom Witherow in The Times.
Khan repeatedly demanded that his questioner, Susan Hall, the Conservative leader in the London Assembly explained what she meant by how many rape gangs there were in London. “The situation in London in relation to young people being groomed is different to other parts of the country. What we have in London is young people being groomed, to use your word, not mine, to be used in county lines,” he alleged.
🚨 NEVER FORGET WHEN THE MAYOR OF LONDON, SADIQ KHAN, COMPLETELY REFUSED TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GROOMING GANGS IN LONDON 😲
KHAN MUST RESIGN 🚫 pic.twitter.com/66wvRsCkWF
— BRITAIN IS BROKEN 🇬🇧 (@BROKENBRITAIN0) September 19, 2025
“Every time I asked I got the same stupid answer back, ‘We don’t have (grooming gangs), it’s county lines and I thought, no, there is a difference. The truth is, it has existed for years. It’s a cover-up. Why can’t they come out with the truth,” Susan Hall lashed out at Khan’s inaction.
Why don’t those in power admit that we have real problems with ‘grooming gangs’? Sadiq Khan pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about when I questioned him about them being in London. Shocking! pic.twitter.com/ktg4v9PbaU
— Susan Hall AM (@Councillorsuzie) October 20, 2025
According to retired police officer Jon Wedger, the gangs are preparing minor girls for sex and prostitution. He was in Tottenham in northeast London to prove the existence of this menace. “I worked in the Met Police’s vice squad for years, and I’ve never seen so many in one area,” he voiced while highlighting that a 12-year-old Somalian girl and two English girls aged 15 and 16 years old were “working” together.
The former officer who departed the Met in 2017 after 25 years teamed up with an IBB Media documentary crew to expose the widespread practice of child prostitution on London’s streets. He is a member of a loose alliance of activists, nonprofits and ex-police officers who are trying to expose London’s sex trade.
Wedger asserted that he had proof, including the car registration numbers of the offenders. However, he was ordered to cease looking into the cases of 50 kids who had been sexually violated and groomed in London, in 2006. He advocates for victims now and complained that nothing has changed. “Sadiq Khan is making a mockery out of semantics, when the real issue should be vulnerable kids at risk, at mortal risk. Instead, he is having this puerile argument on semantics,” he charged.
Failure to accept the problem, U-turns and shocking cover-ups
Met (Metropolitan Police) commissioner Sir Mark Rowley refused to acknowledge the critical problem in response to enquiries from members of the London Assembly, in February. He then made a U-turn recently, professing that the police were handling a “steady flow” of “multiple offender cases” and mentioning “several live” inquiries. He added that there was a “very significant” number of historical cases.
The Met announced that it would examine 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases in response to recommendations made by Baroness Casey of Blackstock, who was called in to assist with the grooming gangs investigation when both of the chosen candidates to lead it stepped down.
The authorities claimed that multiple cases that needed to be examined did not meet the standard description of gang offending. These include instances of exploitation in institutional settings, peer-on-peer abuse and family situations.
On the contrary, the situation in London, according to campaigners who assisted in uncovering grooming gangs, is similar to the “cover-up” by officials they endured for years in northern English towns and cities. Maggie Oliver warned that London is the “last bastion” of this cover-up. She is the former Manchester police officer who turned whistleblower concerning Rochdale grooming gangs.
“I came to realize that everybody at the top 100% knew and wanted to cover it up. I think the Met is the last bastion of being able to cover up, because I have no doubt from the work we do (at the Maggie Oliver Foundation charity supporting survivors and) from what I’ve read (in the investigation’s findings) that there is a similar pattern of abuse in (London). I don’t know how they’ve managed to cover it up for so long, but it doesn’t surprise me,” she emphasised, according to Daily Express.
Negligence, victim blaming and no action against perpetrators
Professor Alexis Jay’s well-known findings on child abuse reveals several instances that bear an apparent similarity to the grooming model used in Bristol, Newcastle, Rotherham, Telford and other places.
A 15-year-old girl informed police that she had attended “*uck parties,” which are events where she was given drugs and drink in exchange for having sex but the cops did nothing, the Times stated.
Jay conveyed that the teenager had not been contacted by Met officers for five weeks preceding the case opening. She was informed following a “multi-agency meeting” that the gatherings she went to with older men, drinks and drugs were not “*uck parties.” As a result, she and her friends were not in danger. However, Jay observed that the proof suggested otherwise and the Met’s reaction was “weak.”
A 13-year-old “frequently missing” child from Tower Hamlets of east London was brought to hotel sex parties, in 2018. Jay outlined that after just one phone contact to social services, police “decided that this was not a child sexual exploitation case.” The youngster and his family were not contacted by officers.
Jay stated that the boy was placed on a child protection plan. The Met later admitted that its focus had been on drug and criminal exploitation, the “county lines” as mentioned by Sadiq Khan, rather than child sexual exploitation.
The public record contains a number of heinous cases. Officers were accused of “victim-blaming” by Jay in her report. One official remarked, “Her current lifestyle is placing her at risk of significant harm, her behaviour is not good,” in early 2018 notes.
The results of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services were much more serious. Khan provided formal responses to four reports from 2016 to 2025, each of which contained information about six possible victims. Maggie Oliver is positive that three of the offenders may be classified as grooming gangs.
Drugs, prostitution and paedophilia
“It’s not as bad as it is in Rotherham, it’s worse. We’ve got a problem in every area of London,” Chris Wild, an author and campaigner was quoted in the article by The Times. Wild reportedly oversaw six children’s care establishments in Enfield, Tottenham and Haringey in North London during the pandemic. “They were losing 50 to 75 per cent of their children every single week to prostitution,” he reported.
“One (home) had six kids, and lost five to prostitution every single week. They were coming back dishevelled, having had drugs, (been) sold off to sex rings and raped by paedophiles. The police won’t get back to you for five or six days,” Wild added.
He additionally mentioned that the police had various justifications. They claimed, “Oh, she won’t give a statement,” as well as “she’s the instigator, she’s promiscuous,” if they knew the victim.
“It’s happening all over London (and) so much so much more than anywhere else in the country. I’m on the front line and workers like me all have stories of girls like this. I’m constantly vocal about this in London. To hear reports from the Mayor’s office saying ‘but this is not a problem here’ show the guy’s deluded. You’ve got to ask yourself the question: who are they protecting? What are they protecting,” he asked and requested Khan to accept the grave issue.
London mayor Sadiq Khan under fire
“It is shameful that the Mayor of London is claiming to have no indication that grooming gangs are operating in London despite personally responding to reports containing evidence of victims abused by grooming gangs in the city. It is clear Sadiq Khan is facilitating a cover up,” charged Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP.
In an already shameful week for the Labour Government – first with Jess Phillips losing the confidence of rape gang survivors, then today apparently accidentally releasing a migrant hotel paedophile – tonight’s breaking news is the final straw:
Tonight’s revelation of the Met…
— Chris Philp MP (@CPhilpOfficial) October 24, 2025
“There is real, credible evidence that grooming gangs exist in London, and for the Mayor to have potentially turned a blind eye is utterly shameful,” Reform UK MP Lee Anderson expressed.
“Khan and the Met Commissioner’s continued denials of the trauma suffered by grooming gang survivors is gaslighting the survivors of some of the most unimaginably awful crimes by two of London’s most powerful men. They should be ashamed. It’s shocking that all of this evidence is on public record and that there is recognition that the issue of grooming gangs exist in London. For a mayor who positions himself as an ambassador for violence against women and girls justice, why would he so blatantly block the voices of these women survivors from speaking,” a victim questioned.
The mayor and the Metropolitan Police insisted that there have been “no reports” of Rotherham or Rochdale-style rape gangs in the city, with the former announcing there was “no indication” they exist. However, the development concerning His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services exposed the truth.
Rowley even wrote Khan an open letter highlighting that the Met was looking into 654 child criminal exploitation cases that had been reported since 6th April and 716 child sexual exploitation cases involving “lone or multiple offenders.” According to Rowley, the force has documented over 14,500 sexual offences against adults and children during that time. He agreed that “too often, victims have been disbelieved and even judged at times” and that “historically and across the United Kingdom, the cases have not always been recognised and thoroughly probed.”
The reports based on reviews of the Met’s handling of sexual abuse cases from the beginning of Khan’s tenure until this year, described how police failed to act when they discovered that these predatory gangs were taking advantage of girls as young as 13. Meanwhile, Khan’s spokesperson declared that he should be commended for ordering the reports and acting upon “all recommendations” made.
The investigation found that five distinct youngsters in the east London borough were being abused by networks engaged in sexual exploitation. Witness accounts during the proceedings detailed how, in the late 2010s, “groups of older men” sexually exploited girls in hotel rooms.
Pakistan grooming gangs in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has been plagued by grooming gangs predominantly operated by Pakistani Muslim men for decades. Authorities, the government and even the media have been repeatedly accused of covering up the atrocious crimes by victims, their families and campaigners in the name of Islamophobia and racism. The situation escalated to such an extent that former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak formed a dedicated task force to address the issue.
Young girls, some as young as 11, were abducted, raped, abused, sold, and even killed by these gangs in the late 1990s. It was discovered that British Pakistani men had sexually assaulted 1,400 children in Rotherham alone over a 16-year period.
The National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse study disclosed that 64% of child sexual exploitation instances in Rotherham were committed by these men. Furthermore, the majority of the 42 people found guilty of child sexual exploitation charges under “Operation Stovewood” were Pakistani men.
According to the outcome of the Rape Gang Inquiry report, Pakistani Muslim rape gangs have been active in up to 85 locations around the United Kingdom, Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe stated on 26th August. The persistent and unrestrained presence of these gangs has given rise to considerable political and social backlash.