The Scottish Conservatives have called on the Labour Home Secretary to extend the national inquiry into grooming gangs to cover Scotland.
Shadow Scottish Secretary Andrew Bowie has written to Yvette Cooper in the wake of her announcement to the House of Commons on Monday of an official probe into group-based child exploitation.
In his letter, Mr Bowie warns that “victims of grooming gangs in Scotland must not and cannot be overlooked” because to do so “risks creating a two-tier system of justice”.
He believes a UK-wide remit is essential to uncover the scale of the problem and the lessons to be learned in Scotland, where cases of grooming gangs have been exposed in Glasgow and Dundee.
The Scottish Conservatives say the inquiry would work in the same way as the UK Covid Inquiry.
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Andrew Bowie MP said: “Now that the Labour Government has finally bowed to the huge public demand for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal it is essential that it is truly national in scope.
“That means extending the remit to include Scotland, where there have been well-documented cases of gangs responsible for the rape and sexual abuse of young women.
“The Home Secretary must work with the Scottish Government to agree the scope of the inquiry because it’s imperative that the voices of Scottish victims of these vile gangs are heard and appropriate lessons learned for the future.
“We already know that vulnerable young women were appallingly let down by Labour-run councils, where it appears that partisan political considerations led to the cover-up of the issue.
“It’s essential to uncover if sensitivities over the racial make-up of the perpetrators was a factor in the Scottish cases too.”