A former children’s commissioner will chair the national inquiry into grooming gangs after months of delays.

Baroness Anne Longfield will lead the inquiry over three years with a budget of £65 million.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the appointment and the inquiry’s terms of reference in the Commons on Tuesday.

Of her appointment, Baroness Longfield said: “The inquiry owes it to the victims, survivors and the wider public to identify the truth, address past failings and ensure that children and young people today are protected in a way that others were not.

“The inquiry will follow the evidence and will not shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths wherever we find them.”

There has been mounting pressure on the Government to move forward with the inquiry, first announced

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