Rachel Reeves has insisted ministers "never dismissed the concerns of victims" of grooming gangs, as she defended the decision to launch a national inquiry after months of pressure.

The chancellor said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was focused on victims "and not grandstanding".

Sir Keir has faced criticism for resisting calls for such an inquiry, with the Conservatives claiming they forced him into a U-turn.

Former detective Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police over the way grooming cases were handled in Rochdale, said the Conservatives and Labour had both been "dragged kicking and screaming to this point".

The prime minister said on Saturday he had read an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for an inquiry, covering England and Wales.

The report is expected to be published on Monday and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to address the findings of the review in Parliament.

At the start of the year, the government dismissed calls for a national inquiry.

Sir Keir and other ministers argued the issue had already been examined in a seven-year inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay.

Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Reeves was asked whether the prime minister had been wrong to initially resist the idea.

She replied: "We've never dismissed the concerns of victims. These are the most important people in those discussions."

Reeves said the government had been focused on implementing the recommendations of Professor Jay's review.

"But the prime minister wanted to assure himself he was doing everything that was necessary, which is why he asked Baroness Casey to do this rapid review," she added.

When asked if Sir Keir had changed his mind on the need for a national inquiry, Reeves replied: "Our prime minister has always been really focused on the victims, and not grandstanding but actually doing the practical things to ensure something like this never happens again."

Ms Oliver said the inquiry was "an important step on the journey to change" and that Baroness Casey's report would "lift the lid on what has been going on".

But she said Labour and the Conservatives had "equally failed" to confront the issue of grooming gangs, so "won't get a single bit of thanks" from her.

"For me, I can only look at them with contempt, because I see on the ground the suffering that their neglect has caused," she added.

Appearing on the same programme, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the decision to launch the inquiry should have happened "far, far earlier".

He said the Conservatives had been "calling for this for many, many months" and accused Sir Keir of dismissing their concerns as "some kind of far-right bandwagon".

"That was the wrong response," Stride said. "This is just another example of the prime minister being pressurised by us into U-turning."

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said it was pleased the prime minister accepted the recommendations of Baroness Casey's report.

But the charity's chief executive Chris Sherwood said "a national inquiry into abuse by organised networks must not delay urgent action on child sexual abuse that is long overdue".

He said survivors had already waited more than two years for the recommendations from Professor Jay's report to be implemented.

Professor Jay's inquiry found institutional failings, with tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.

The seven-year investigation concluded child sexual abuse was "epidemic" across the two nations and made 20 recommendations in the final report published in 2022.

The grooming gangs issue was thrust into the spotlight at the start of this year, fuelled partly by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who criticised Sir Keir for not calling a national inquiry.

A row between the two centred on high-profile cases where groups of men, mainly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing and raping predominantly young white girls in towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale.

In January, the government stopped short of launching a statutory national inquiry into grooming gangs, despite the idea receiving support from some Labour MPs.

The statutory inquiry now backed by the prime minister will be able to compel witnesses to provide evidence.

The government has already announced plans for five local inquiries, to be held in Oldham and four other areas yet to be named.

A senior government source said the national inquiry would "co-ordinate a series of targeted local investigations".

Are you missing the drama of The Traitors? Fear not because the New Zealand version drops on BBC Three and iPlayer on Monday.

But that's not all the next seven days have in store.

Yungblud’s new album is out, 28 Years Later is released in UK cinemas, gaming fans have Date Everything to look forward to, and Benson Boone is also dropping a new album.

Read on for what's coming up this week...

Your next Traitors fix

This Monday, we’re gearing up to watch 22 New Zealanders lie, cheat and betray their way to winning up to $100,000 (£44,000).

That’s right, it’s time for series two of The Traitors NZ, filmed at Claremont Manor at the foot of Mount Horrible (no, really).

As with the British version, the show is a study in human nature, as alliances form early on, and suspicions run rife.

The series already aired in NZ, with the New Zealand Herald saying it could be “the reality TV hit of the year”.

But one thing it doesn’t have is Claudia Winkleman and her epic wardrobe.

Instead, it's hosted by New Zealand broadcaster Paul Henry. Don’t worry, his outfits are just as fabulous.

Yungblud's shackles are off

Yungblud, the chart-topping singer who set up his own festival, is dropping his new album Idols on Friday.

I was lucky enough to see him at a party in central London recently, where I got a sneak preview of the new album - a blend of his signature pop-punk and emotional depth.

The 27-year-old artist - whose real name is Dominic Richard Harrison - was there alongside Florence Pugh, who stars in the music video for one of his new songs, Zombie.

He said the new record, made in the north of England with his best mates, was his "most ambitious and exciting music to date".

Yungblud is known for his committed young fanbase and, with his new album, he's said he wants to make that community even bigger.

Harking back to the sounds of Queen and David Bowie, he told my colleague Mark Savage that it would "reclaim the good chords" (Asus4 and Em7, in case you're wondering). "The shackles are off," he said.

28 Years Later hits cinemas

By Alex Taylor, culture reporter

Batten down the hatches and don't make a sound - this week sees director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland unleash 28 Years Later.

It's a long-awaited return for the UK-based zombie horror series that first infected audiences in 2002 with 28 Days Later.

The protagonist, 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams), lives with his parents Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Isla (Jodie Comer). He's only ever known life on an island connected to the quarantined British mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway.

I've seen a sneak preview, and while I can't say much, the trademark realism and unrelenting tension persists. Fans of The Last of Us will love this.

As for those fan theories sparked by the trailer? Despite speculation that Cillian Murphy appears as a zombie, Boyle has confirmed to IGN that the Oscar-winner, who made his name in the original film, will only reprise his role as Jim in the next instalment - already shot and due for release next year.

Objects of affection

By Tom Richardson, Newsbeat reporter

It is perhaps not so surprising that a video game created by two veteran voice actors opens with the main character at risk of losing their job to AI.

But where Date Everything! goes next is somewhat more unexpected.

Players don a pair of high-tech glasses called "Dateviators" that turn household objects including fridges, doors and lamps into potential love interests.

Creators Robbie Daymond (Critical Role) and Ray Chase (X-Men '97, Jujutsu Kaisen) obviously raided their contact books, as each item is brought to life in the form of a human cartoon avatar created by a star from the worlds of gaming and anime.

In a bit of fortuitous timing, this celebration of their craft arrives on consoles and PCs from Tuesday, just days after a months-long video game acting strike was suspended.

Flip out over Benson Boone's new album

By Mark Savage, music correspondent

King of the backflip Benson Boone had the most-streamed track in the world last year with Beautiful Things - earning enough money to buy his first house - but now he's ready to move on.

"I'm getting to the point where I just want people to know that there's more than just that song," he told Rolling Stone earlier this year.

The results have been mixed. His comeback single Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else, a propulsive new wave anthem, peaked at number 20 in the UK charts, while Beautiful Things still continued to remain stubbornly lodged in the top 10.

But his new album, American Heart, is worth your attention. The title track is a widescreen anthem about a near-fatal car accident he got into as a teenager; Mr Electric Blue is a spirited tribute to his dad (featuring the lyric, "Watch the way you talk to me/If you want to keep your two front teeth"); and the second single Mystical Magical features a falsetto so ridiculous its almost endearing.

Repackaging the sounds of Queen and Elton John for the TikTok generation, it's efficient and catchy – though I'd avoid the saccharine Momma Song if you have an aversion to schmaltz.

Other highlights this week

• Untold Legends: Hedy Lamarr drops on the BBC World Service on Monday
• Gianni Versace Retrospective opens at Arches London Bridge on Monday
• Supersonic, a documentary about Oasis, is re-released in a limited number of cinemas on Monday
• Royal Academy Summer Exhibition opens on Tuesday
• Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, series two, drops on Netflix on Wednesday
• Sheffield DocFest starts on Wednesday
• Heston: My Life with Bipolar is released on BBC Two and iPlayer on Thursday
• The Isle of Wight Festival starts on Thursday
• Haim's new album, I Quit, drops on Friday
• Grenfell: Uncovered is released on Netflix on Friday

A person has suffered serious injuries after an "incident" involving a vehicle at a multi-storey car park at London Luton Airport, police said.

Emergency services were called to the car park shortly before 11:00 BST.

Bedfordshire Police said their officers, ambulance and fire crews are still on the scene.

The force urged any witnesses to contact them.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

The manhunt for a suspect in deadly attacks on Minnesota lawmakers continued into its second day on Sunday, as police extended the search over state lines to nearby South Dakota.

Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home early Saturday morning .

Another lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot multiple times and injured.

Police are searching for Vance Luther Boelter, a 57-year-old who they say impersonated a police officer while carrying out the attacks. Federal authorities announced a $50,000 reward for information.

Both lawmakers belonged to Minnesota's Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party.

Senator Hoffman and his wife underwent surgery on Saturday, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he was "cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt."

• What we know about the attack on two Minnesota lawmakers

"Clearly, this is politically motivated," US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who represents Minnesota, told NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Authorities said they recovered a target list from a vehicle used by the suspect that reportedly contained the names of several Democratic politicians who supported abortion rights, as well as abortion providers. The office of Tina Smith, Minnesota's other US Senator, confirmed to BBC News she was on the list.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) added Boelter to their most wanted list, and issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

"It is really not about any of us, it is this incredible woman that we lost, Melissa Hortman," Klobuchar said. "We think about her family today."

"I just wish everyone in the world political world knew this woman like we know her in Minnesota. Loved by Democrats and Republicans," Klobuchar said.

President Donald Trump is aware of the situation, but it was not clear if he would reach out to the state's leadership about the attack.

Governor Walz, a Democrat, was presidential candidate Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election.

Despite the frantic search under way across the region, the city of Brooklyn Park, where Rep. Hortman lived, was still and silent on Sunday morning as the neighbourhood came to terms with the deadly attack.

A police car stood guard outside the Hortman's house, and bright yellow caution tape surrounded the home, now an active crime scene.

Taha Abuisnaineh, who lives across the street, said he and his wife had known the Hortmans for more than 20 years.

"They were very nice neighbours in a very quiet neighbourhood," he told the BBC. "You don't see police activity in this neighbourhood. We are very shocked."

Two other nearby residents who did not want to be named said this suburban community was reeling as news spread of the attack.

"My next-door neighbour heard the shots," said one. "We've all been texting back and forth."

She and her husband described how they received an annual Christmas card from the Hortmans - and recounted how Representative Hortman got along with local Republican politicians.

"What a big loss for Minnesota," she said.

Doctors in India say 270 bodies have been recovered from the site of Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad.

The London-bound aircraft crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off killing all but one of the 242 passengers, a 40-year-old British man.

Officials have been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and have been continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims' identities.

Vigils honouring the dead have taken place across India and the UK.

The company building the HS2 rail line between London and Birmingham has reported one of its subcontractors to the tax authorities over possible fraud.

Whistleblowers made allegations over the way pay was handled for some construction staff on the high-speed line.

HS2 Ltd said last month it was conducting its own investigation, looking into two firms who supplied it with workers. The company has now also referred the matter to HMRC.

The firms in question were providing workers to Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV), a contractor for HS2.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to raise the issue in Parliament this week. It is the latest difficulty to beset the troubled giant rail infrastructure project.

HS2 has faced myriad challenges and spiralling costs since it was first announced in 2009.

It was originally designed to boost capacity on the railways between the north and south of England but the last, Conservative, government decided to scrap the second phase of the project, which included building lines to Manchester and Leeds.

Earlier this year whistleblowers flagged concerns over the way some subcontracted staff were being paid. They said self-employed workers had been falsely declared as salaried staff, with "fake" payslips submitted at a higher payrate. The allegations were first published in the i newspaper in May.

One of the labour suppliers is understood to remain suspended from new contracts while inquiries continue.

An HS2 spokesperson said: "We treat all whistleblower allegations seriously and are continuing to conduct our own investigation."

The firm said it encouraged anyone with relevant information to report it via confidential internal channels.

The Department for Transport said last month it had "a zero-tolerance attitude towards fraud, bribery, and corruption" and would ensure any claims of wrongdoing were thoroughly investigated.

Large asylum seeker sites like Wethersfield air base in Essex are set to be expanded under plans to end the use of asylum hotels, the BBC can reveal.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to stop using taxpayer-funded hotels by 2029 in her Spending Review, saying this would save £1bn.

One of the ways the Home Office hopes to achieve this is by moving asylum seekers from hotels into cheaper alternative forms of accommodation.

Sir Keir Starmer pledged to close the Wethersfield asylum facility during last year's election campaign, but the BBC understands that site and another in Huddersfield are among those under consideration for extensions.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government was "making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system".

"This includes ending the use of hotels, testing new locally-led models, and working closely with local authorities and other departments to ensure a fairer, more efficient approach," they added.

"Our use of any property or Home Office-owned site will be used in line with the permissions set by planning permissions."

The taxpayer cost of asylum hotels has rocketed in recent years, with total accommodation contracts now set to be worth £15.3bn over a 10-year period.

But while extending large sites might be cheaper, the move is likely to anger local residents and refugee rights groups.

In April last year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Wethersfield site couldn't be "seen as either a sustainable solution for housing asylum seekers nor value for money for the taxpayer".

Conservative MP Sir James Cleverly, whose Braintree constituency includes Wethersfield, said the existing cap on the number of people living at the facility "was there to protect the safety and security" of constituents, and "those working at and living on the site".

Sir James, who became home secretary shortly after the first asylum seekers moved into Wethersfield, said the government plan to potentially expand the site was "disgraceful and shows just how out of touch they are with the concerns of local communities".

In March, the High Court found the previous Conservative government's use of Wethersfield to house asylum seekers was unlawful, after three men argued they were living in "prison-like" conditions.

The former RAF base has been housing asylum seekers since 2023. It has a current capacity of 800, but is thought to house closer to 500 people at present.

The Home Office contract for the base is held by Clearsprings, whose founder Graham King recently became a billionaire, according to the Sunday Times rich list.

The Helen Bamber Foundation, a human rights groups, has previously said that accommodating people at the base causes harm to their physical and mental health.

Kamena Dorling, the group's director of policy, told the BBC that Wethersfield "should be closed immediately, not extended".

She said: "Housing people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, in an isolated, overcrowded camp reminiscent of an open-air prison, with inadequate healthcare and legal services, is an inhumane way to treat those seeking protection."

Savings target

A pair of former student accommodation blocks in Huddersfield, acquired by the Home Office last year, could also be extended.

The buildings, constructed in 2019, have a current capacity of 650 but have never been occupied because of safety concerns.

Any extensions to asylum seeker accommodation would be paid for using money earmarked for investment from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, meaning it could be borrowed without falling foul of the chancellor's strict spending rules.

Home Office figures released last month show that as of March, there were about 100,000 asylum seekers in government-funded accommodation, with about 32,000 of those in hotels.

Cooper hopes to end the use of hotels by reducing small boat crossings, speeding up the asylum application process and moving people into alternative accommodation.

Following the chancellor's Spending Review, there had been some confusion over what that alternative accommodation might be.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told BBC Newsnight the government would be "upgrading current facilities, which will include some extensions".

But on Thursday, the prime minister's official spokesman refused to comment on whether new accommodation would be built.

A senior Home Office source has now confirmed to the BBC that while there were no plans for entirely new accommodation blocks, extensions of current facilities will be built and other existing accommodation such as unused student blocks will be rented.

The £1bn saving which the chancellor said would come from reducing hotel use has already been taken out of the Home Office budget.

The Home Office has a new target for how much additional asylum accommodation needs to be created to help achieve the saving, but that exact figure is unknown.

The BBC understands that moving around 14,000 asylum seekers from hotels into other forms of accommodation would likely achieve a saving of £1bn.

A senior Home Office source said they were "confident" they could save the required money, but acknowledged that failing to hit the target would force the department to ask Reeves for more funding to avoid having to make cuts elsewhere.

The number of asylum seekers in hotels is far lower than the record figure in 2023, but has increased since Labour came to power last year.

The latest statistics go up to March and therefore don't take into account the knock-on effect of increased small boat crossings in the months since.

For Mistry Jignesh, 72 hours feel like an eternity.

Since Thursday evening, Mr Jignesh and his family have been doing the rounds of the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, trying to find details of his 22-year-old niece - one of the 242 passengers that died in an Air India plane crash earlier that day.

Authorities had been telling him they would return his niece's body in the 72 hours normally required to complete DNA matching - which end on Sunday.

But on Saturday, he was told that it might take longer as officials are still searching for bodies from the site of the crash, he claimed.

"When people are still missing, how can they possibly complete the DNA process by tomorrow? What if my niece's remains have not even been found? The wait is killing us," he said.

Officials have refused to comment on Mr Jignesh's claim, but a fire department officer and a police official told the BBC on the condition of anonymity that a search for remains of the passengers is still under way.

Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent of the Civil Hospital, said on Saturday that 11 victims had been identified so far based on their DNA samples, adding that their families had been informed.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was on its way to London's Gatwick Airport, erupted in a fireball merely seconds after it took off from Ahmedabad's main airport, in what has been India's worst aviation disaster.

Only one of the 242 passengers and crew on board survived. At least eight others were killed as the plane struck the hostel of a medical college when it came down on a densely populated residential area near the airport.

Things have moved swiftly since.

The Indian government has ordered a high-level investigation into the incident and has ordered all Boeing 787s operated by local carriers to be inspected.

While the reason of the crash remains unknown, the country's aviation authority has said it is looking into all possible causes for the accident, also bringing in foreign aviation experts to assist with the inquiry.

• BBC Verify on what could have caused the crash
• Everything we know so far about flight AI171
• Analysis: What does this mean for Boeing?

Back at the hospital, doctors are racing to complete the DNA sampling of the victims so that they can start returning bodies to their families.

But for families like Mr Jignesh's, time passes in dragging lulls.

Officials have talked about how the process of identifying bodies has been extremely challenging - and is being carried out in small batches - as most of the remains have been charred beyond recognition.

"There is no scope for mistakes here - we have to ensure that every family receives the right body," said HP Sanghvi, the director of Directorate of Forensic Sciences in Gandhinagar city. "But DNA identification is a time-consuming process. Besides, given the scale of the disaster, there is also a possibility that the DNA of several passengers was damaged due to the extremely high temperature of the blast."

Jaishankar Pillai, a forensic dentist at the hospital, told reporters that his team has been trying to collect dental records from charred bodies, as that might be the only source of DNA left.

The wait has been beyond agonising for the families, many of whom refused to speak to the media, saying they just want to go back home with "whatever is left of their loved ones".

"We are in no condition to say anything. Words fail us right now," a woman, who was waiting with three members of her family outside the autopsy room, told the BBC impatiently, as she quickly slipped into her car.

• As details continue to emerge, who are the victims?
• British man is only passenger to survive India plane crash

Meanwhile, officials at the BJ Medical College have started to vacate several wards of the hostel, near which the plane struck. So far, four wards - including the hostel canteen, the site of the crash - have been completely emptied out.

But students living in other nearby wings of the hostel have also begun to leave.

"In one of the wards, there are just three people left - everyone else has gone back to their homes for now. They will leave soon too, but until then, they are sitting there, all alone, haunted by the memory of what has happened," their friend, who is also a student at the college and wanted to stay anonymous, said.

But between the college and hospital - in the vast expanse of this city of more than seven million people - there are many others who also are reeling from the tragedy.

The last Kartik Kalawadia heard of his brother Mahesh was on Thursday, some 30 minutes before the crash.

It was a phone call Mahesh made to his wife: "I am coming home," he said to her.

She never heard from him again.

A music producer in the Gujarati film industry, Mahesh had been on his way back home from work that day and was crossing the area when the plane hurtled down and crashed into the buildings.

Mr Kalawadia told the BBC that his brother's last location before his phone became unreachable was just a few hundred metres away from BJ Medical college.

The family has since filed a police complaint and has made countless visits to the Civil Hospital. They have found nothing so far.

"The hospital told us they have no record of my brother. We also tried tracing his scooter, but nothing came of that either," Mr Kalawadia said.

"It's like he vanished into thin air."

At a press conference on Saturday, Civil Aviation Secretary SK Sinha admitted that the last two days had been "very hard", but assured the investigation was proceeding smoothly and in the right direction.

But Mr Kalawadia wondered if any of these inquires - into the plane crash, the victims and beyond - would help him find his brother, dead or alive.

"We don't know the answer, but we can hope it's a positive one, I guess," he said.

Back at the Civil Hospital, the wait continues to haunt families.

When the BBC last met Imtiyaz Ali Sayed over Thursday night, he was still in denial that his family - his brother Javed along with his wife and two children - could have died in the crash.

But on Saturday, he seemed closer to "accepting the truth".

"With just a few hours left, we are now trying to decide what will it be: will we bury him here, or in the UK, where his wife's family lives," he said.

"To me, it makes no difference you know?" he continued, "because he's gone, from ashes to dust and back to God."