Kemi Badenoch has described Police Scotland’s failure to investigate a grooming gang in Scotland as “utterly shameful.”
Her intervention comes as a GB News investigation revealed missed opportunities by a care authority and the police to protect vulnerable girls in care in Glasgow.
The Conservative leader said: “If we can’t protect vulnerable girls from exploitation and sexual violence on this scale, we have failed as a society.”
Ms Badenoch’s also singled out the SNP for criticism after the party voted down a Tory amendment in Holyrood that would have required further research into grooming gangs.
“Stop the cover-ups. If the SNP continue to block this, many will ask the same questions being asked of Labour: what have they got to hide?”
It comes after GB News revealed details from social care records kept on a grooming gang victim that detailed several indicators of exploitation, such as the victim going missing and returning to the care unit intoxicated.
The People’s Channel also found evidence of Police Scotland visiting the care home after the girl appeared in an investigation into child sexual exploitation, but the police never spoke to the victim.
Taylor, not her real name, spoke exclusively to GB News about how she was shocked to discover how much information the police and the care home had on her risk of exploitation.
Bradford grooming gang survivor Fiona Goddard also told GB News about her abuse at the hands of grooming gangs in Scotland, describing how she was trafficked to Glasgow from Yorkshire.
She said: “They would then use girls from Bradford and taxi drivers to transport drugs up to them. And then once we got there, things would obviously happen up there as well.
“And by men up there, I also know that they were doing it to children around the cities as well up there.
“I remember going up in a taxi to like a dingy terraced house, and it was like a shared occupancy house, and there were just loads of men in there.
Kemi Badenoch reacted to a GB News moment
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PAShe recalled how she saw men “bagging up drugs” while “girls sat around on the surface”.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We fully recognise the devastating impacts such abuse has on victims and their families. That is why we formed the expert National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group which brings together key services and expert stakeholders including Police Scotland and Professor Alexis Jay to inform and improve our collective response to this horrendous form of abuse.”
Detective Superintendent Nicky McGovern said: “Officers from our National Child Abuse Investigation Unit work tirelessly to prevent children becoming victims, and we use all means at our disposal to track down offenders and ensure they are brought to justice.
“Following Baroness Casey’s report and recommendations, we are committed to identifying any areas for improvement or further learning. We also work closely with policing colleagues across the UK, sharing best practice and learning, to tackle all forms of criminal exploitation.”