The Express has exposed what it calls a cover-up by Sadiq Khan regarding grooming gangs in London, leading to a dramatic U-turn by the Mayor. In September 2025, Khan’s spokesperson branded the Express’s initial reporting as “false, malicious and politically motivated,” but by November, the mounting evidence forced a reversal.
From Denial to Acknowledgment
Khan’s office initially denied the existence of grooming gangs in London, with the Mayor claiming there was “no indication” of such activity. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner also stated that grooming gangs were “not something” the force was “seeing.” However, following the Express’s persistent investigation, which was later corroborated by The Times and other national newspapers, Khan pivoted to claiming he had always urged police to “leave no stone unturned.”
The Express’s investigations editor, Zak Garner-Purkis, noted the irony: “It would be a laughable u-turn if it weren’t on a subject so dark and disturbing.”
Bureaucratic Avoidance Exposed
The article highlights how authorities used bureaucratic definitions to ignore evidence. During the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, Tower Hamlets was scrutinized, and multiple clear-cut cases were presented. Senior Met officers dismissed them because they “used a different definition” for rape gangs, requiring organized crime group criteria rather than recognizing exploitative networks.
This technicality allowed the Met to deny the existence of grooming gangs despite clear evidence. Garner-Purkis writes: “This was a ludicrous state of affairs - a technicality that denied the blindingly obvious fact that London had the same type of rape gangs that had been exposed around the country.”
New Data Raises Questions
The Sunday Telegraph recently reported that the Met had passed approximately 4,000 cases to the National Crime Agency for review of prematurely abandoned grooming gang investigations. While this number seems high, a source told the Standard that the criteria for review were “much broader” than typical grooming gang profiles.
Garner-Purkis suggests this may be a “flood the zone” tactic, similar to Steve Bannon’s strategy of overwhelming opponents with information. He writes: “We’ve flipped from having criteria that identify no grooming gangs to criteria that find too many.”
Call for Inquiry
The Express hopes the grooming gangs inquiry will examine London and call Sadiq Khan as a witness. “We can only hope they call Sir Sadiq Khan as a witness and grill him on the unholy mess,” Garner-Purkis states. The newspaper vows to continue investigating and has launched a Premium service to fund transparency efforts.
