Labour blasted over 'toothless' grooming probes: Ministers finally announce 'local reviews' into child abuse scandal - but critics insist full national inquiry is needed

Labour faced fury last night for launching ‘toothless’ small-scale probes into grooming gangs instead of a full national inquiry. And she continued to defy calls for a national public inquiry into the scandal, despite admitting there were currently 127 ‘major police investigations’ under way into child sexual exploitation across 29 different forces. Yvette Cooper, pictured, announced five local reviews into badly hit towns, as Labour backtracked after previously insisting that no new investigations were needed The Home Secretary, pictured, also said there would be a ‘rapid audit’ of the scale of child sexual exploitation across the country that would look into the ethnicity of perpetrators as part of a £10million action plan Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick, pictured, told the Mail: ‘The handful of local probes are powerless to get justice and accountability for the thousands of victims. Tech tycoon Elon Musk, pictured, one of the Government’s most vocal critics in recent weeks, wrote on his social media network X: ‘This is a step in the right direction, but the results will speak for themselves.’ Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, pictured, said: ‘Today’s announcement will not get to the truth. Mr Philp said: ‘Smearing those who raised this issue is exactly what led to the victims being ignored and the crimes covered up in the first place.’ Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham who in recent days joined calls for a new national probe, urged the Home Secretary: ‘A big strand of what we need to do is ensure that there have been no cover-ups, and we can only do that if requirements are on a statutory footing.’ She also pointed out that just one earlier review had cost £8 million, yet only £5 million is being provided for five new pilots across the country, and asked: ‘Why do we need another inquiry in Telford when we know this is happening nationally?’ Marlon West, whose daughter Scarlett was groomed by a gang in Greater Manchester, said: ‘We’ve already had a series of local inquiries, and they’ve failed to get to the truth of what’s really going on.