Sir Ed Davey called for the complete implementation of the results of a previous national review in grooming gangs.
The chief of the Liberal Democrats said: “I think there should be a national response, absolutely.
“It starts with the implementation of the conclusions of the previous national survey that the conservatives have not implemented. Work is now in power, why don’t they do that?”
A national survey of sexual abuse of children through England and Wales was commanded by the interior secretary of the time, Theresa May, in 2014.
This produced a report written by Professor Alexis Jay who was published in October 2022, and which focused on the grooming gangs specifically.
Watch: the father of a victim says that the government should have “shame”
He focused on six areas of case study which had not already been subjected to high -level independent local surveys.
He found that sexual abuse by grooming gangs were underway and were not a rarity confined to a few areas, but a broader problem.
The report also listed 20 recommendations, none of which has been implemented.
Referring to this report, Davey continued saying that Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives “should hang the head of shame” so as not to implement them when they were in power.
He added that he would like to start by seeing them implemented by work and said “we must absolutely defend these bad victims”.
Badenoch this week suggested that she could try to force a vote for a new national survey, a decision that the Conservatives have already tried without success once before.
When asked if the Lib Dems would support this, Davey said it was something that his party should “actively consider”.
But he pointed out that he thought that existing recommendations should be implemented first.