The Reform group on Lancashire County Council will call for the national inquiry into grooming gangs to conduct an investigation in the county.

Speaking exclusively to GB News, the council leadership said that the area had never had a proper investigation into the scandal and that victims needed to see justice.

The council will ask the CEO to write to the Home Secretary to formalise the request as soon as next week.

Grooming abuse networks have been reported across the county, particularly in Blackpool, Burnley and Blackburn.

It was revealed in 2013 that, since 2008, over 230 men had been investigated for serious child sex abuse offences.

One-third of the suspects were said to be from Burnley.

The Lancashire Constabulary probe, called Operation Freedom, had made some 113 arrests during the five-year period.

But victims and their families in Lancashire have told GB News that not enough action has been taken.

The People’s Channel has heard compelling testimony that gangs were still operating in the county and that some girls had been trafficked between towns.

One family member of a survivor of the gangs said that their sister had, on one occasion, been taken from a town in the county and abandoned in Bradford by abusers, miles from her home.

Cllr Maria Jones, the council’s safeguarding champion, said: “For too long, survivors across the country, including in Lancashire, have been ignored, silenced, criminalised, vilified, and failed by the very institutions that were meant to protect them.

“Serious allegations of grooming, abuse, and systemic cover-ups demand nothing less than a comprehensive and transparent investigation at the national level.”

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Urging the inquiry to come to Lancashire, she added: “We must ensure that such horrific abuse is never allowed to happen again, anywhere in the UK.

“Lancashire’s communities, survivors, and families deserve answers, and we, as the Reform Council in Lancashire, are fully committed to pursuing those answers with the utmost urgency and resolve. We urge the Government and all relevant authorities to act without delay.”

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that there would be a statutory national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal in June.

Sir Keir’s announcement came after the former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper appointed Baroness Louise Casey to conduct an audit of group-based CSE in the country. She returned her report with a recommendation for an inquiry and a national police investigation.

The demand from Lancashire County Council’s leadership comes after authorities in Bradford formally requested that the national inquiry investigated the West Yorkshire district.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The sexual abuse of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable, and every allegation must be thoroughly investigated, no matter where it leads.

“We have committed to a new national inquiry which will undertake specific investigations locally.

“We are in the process of appointing a chair who will play a central role in shaping the terms of reference, alongside identifying the first areas for review, and we are consulting victims and survivors to ensure we get it right.”