Former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley has declared Sadiq Khan “not fit for high office of any description” following a BBC investigation revealing vulnerable girls as young as 13 are being sexually exploited by gangs across the capital, contradicting the Mayor’s previous statements that there was “no indication” of such problems in London.
Bleksley told GB News that Khan’s position on the issue demonstrated he was “either lying when he said there were no rape gangs in London, or he was ignorant of the facts,” adding: “Either way it fundamentally proves without all doubt that Sadiq Khan is not fit for high office of any description.”
The BBC investigation uncovered evidence through weeks of interviews with dozens of individuals in London, including five women who survived gang-related violence. Survivors described being subjected to rape by multiple men as “payment” for drug debts accumulated by criminal groups controlling them, whilst others were groomed specifically for sexual purposes.
Detective Sergeant John Knox, who leads the Met’s child exploitation team in Lambeth and Southwark, confirmed girls within gang structures “cannot say no to sex.” Knox stated: “Within that gang world, the girls are at the lowest rung and they have to do as they’re told. And that includes sexually.”
The detective sergeant estimates at least 60 children in his south London area are currently being exploited by gangs, with victims as young as 13. A Metropolitan Police officer described young females as occupying the “lowest rung” within gang hierarchies, groomed and exploited “for everything.”
Head of Reform UK London Laila Cunningham told GB News: “What this BBC investigation lays bare is horrific. Girls as young as 13 being passed between men, drugged, raped, and treated as ‘the lowest rung.’ That was happening in London while Sadiq Khan told us repeatedly it wasn’t.”
Cunningham stated she “always knew this was happening” from reading transcripts of abuse cases outside London in places such as Oxford. “But Londoners were told grooming gangs of that type did not exist here. The Mayor said there was ‘no indication’. The Police and Crime Commissioner repeated it,” she added.
She continued: “Now, after public pressure, the Commissioner admits he is reviewing thousands of cases and says this has ‘always been a problem’. That raises a serious question: if it was always a problem, why were we told it didn’t exist? Who decided denial was safer than protecting girls?”
Susan Hall, Conservative leader in London City Hall, told GB News: “I am horrified by the disturbing reports of teens being exploited by gangs for sex, which up until recently has been ignored by the authorities.” Hall stated conversations with survivors had revealed similar accounts, adding: “It breaks my heart to think about what those young girls and boys have been through.”
One survivor, given the pseudonym Milly, described being “passed around different men every night” at age 15, sometimes encountering 10 to 15 men monthly. “They just give us drink, give us drugs. Next thing I know, I’d just be in the bedroom with one of them,” she told the BBC.
Beyond sexual exploitation, the investigation revealed how groups of men entice girls into drug dealing, weapons trafficking and phone theft. Bleksley criticized police leadership for failing to record offender identities, calling it “outrageous” and “cowardly.”
He argued the situation had created a “confused landscape” where only victim testimony could be relied upon regarding perpetrator backgrounds, adding: “The ethnicity should always be recorded for every crime. End of story.”
A spokesman for the Mayor responded that any individuals or groups exploiting children for sex are “utterly abhorrent” and Khan “wants justice for every single victim of these horrific crimes.” The spokesman added the Mayor expects the Met to “follow the evidence wherever it leads” and will ensure the force does “everything possible to tackle all child sexual exploitation in the capital, including grooming gangs.”
Met deputy assistant commissioner Kevin Southworth confirmed grooming gangs rank “very high” on the force’s “threat and risk radar,” stating: “We are very, very acutely aware of the risk of grooming gangs here in London and their prevalence.” Southworth added the Met had witnessed examples of gangs grooming children for both criminal and sexual exploitation.
Cunningham declared: “As Mayor, my mission will be absolute. I will never overlook the sexual exploitation of girls in London. I will root out the abusers, dismantle the gangs, and expose everyone who denied, minimised or covered this up.”
