Labour councillors in Bradford have blocked calls for an independent national inquiry into the district’s rape gangs due to fears of becoming “the next Rotherham”.
The motion, which was brought forward by the Conservative Group for Bradford Council, demanded a full, independent national inquiry into grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation in the region.
Rampant critics have slammed the local politicians for offering little beyond “warm words” for the motion calling for a transparent investigation.
Tory MP for Keighley & Ilkley Robbie Moore has blasted the councillors, calling their decision “shameful”.
Tory MP for Keighley & Ilkley Robbie Moore has blasted the councillors, calling their decision “shameful”
GB News
He said: “Tonight’s actions by our local Labour councillors were completely indefensible. “
“They are actively blocking further openness and transparency on this horrendous crime which continues to haunt Keighley and the wider Bradford District.”
On the same day the council met, Moore asked Professor Alexis Jay, who authored the Rotherham report, on the matter in Parliament through the Home Affairs Select Committee.
She explained that many authorities attempt to dodge inquiries over fears of exposure, adding: “They don’t want to be the next Rotherham… there will be a kind of collusion not to commission such reports.”
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Moore added: “The national Labour Government are refusing to instigate a national inquiry, and now our local Labour authority is doing the same.
“Bradford Council cannot be allowed to mark their own homework.”
“Tonight’s decision is exactly why we need a full national inquiry. This cannot be swept under the carpet any longer,” he said.
Previously, he had warned that there were “many, including myself, fearing that the scale of this issue across the Bradford district will dwarf that of Rotherham”.
Eight men were handed jail sentences of almost 58 years for multiple sexual offences against two children in Keighley last week
West Yorkshire Police
Calls for an inquiry has followed those of an abuse victim in Bradford, who was groomed and sexually abused during the time she lived at a care home from 2008.
She said that she was failed on several occasions by local services.
“After about four months of getting abused, social services, the police force, the care homes, all of them were fully aware and I was told it was my lifestyle choice and I had to go and deal with it,” she told the BBC.
The news has followed Yvette Cooper’s announcement of a three-month “rapid audit” assessing the ”current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country”.
The review would analyse “ethnicity data and demographics of gangs involved and their victims” as well as “cultural and societal drivers”.
The Government has also doled out a £10million package to conduct local inquiries into the scandal, with the first one due to take place in Oldham.