Nazir Afzal, the former Chief Prosecutor in North West England, said that the allegations were on the face of it “clearly” of a criminal nature and if proven could amount to sexual assault and racially aggravated abused.

He said: “There is enormous public interest in this matter and the allegations, particularly of a sexual nature, ought to be investigated…

“The thing which my experience tells me when we you have a number of allegations more people will come forward to talk about their experiences. It is only when you have a police investigation that you can get to the bottom of the extent of this alleged behaviour. Unless you have a police investigation you are not going to get to the bottom of what has happened.”

One former very senior Metropolitan Police officer said: "These allegations need investigating. They are almost certainly clear breaches of sexual offences acts. They are not at the high end but there appears to be a pattern of behaviour that suggests it needs to be properly investigated. On the face of it, what's being reported do appear to be criminal offences. It looks like there is criminality."

Lord Falconer, a former Justice Secretary and partner in law firm Gibson Dunn, said that it if the allegations were shown to be true then it “looks like criminal offences and it looks like they were committed regularly”.