Labour rejects calls for Oldham grooming gang inquiry

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Are Labour right to push the responsibility for carrying out a public inquiry back onto Oldham Council?

I don't understand how it is considered acceptable for local authorities to carry out their own inquiries when they are often part of the institutional failure that allowed these crimes to be carried out on such a large scale over decades. Councils, police and social services were/are all implicated in the failure to act (or to actively obstruct) in some way or another.

"Phillips’ letter to Oldham Council, seen by GB News, claims it is for the the local authority ‘alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene.’ Reports have previously been commissioned and produced in Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford; Oldham now plans to launch its own Telford-style inquiry. Given the strength of feeling – which Phillips acknowledges in her letter – it seems inevitable that there will be questions or debate in the Commons when parliament returns next week."

"Yet for the hundreds of victims and those invested in bringing perpetrators to justice, this will seem pitifully inadequate. In each town where grooming gangs operated, similar patterns emerged: victims were ignored, law enforcement complicit and political officials more concerned about reputational damage than lives affected. Local authorities can hold their own inquiries, of course. But given the scale of these crimes, the fact they took place over decades, in many towns, suggests a level of institutional complicity requiring the attention of central government."

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-rejects-calls-for-oldham-grooming-gang-inquiry/

Archive...

https://archive.ph/3greC#selection-1667.0-1759.570

Yes, implementing the recommendations from the existing reports does also seem quite important (and urgent).

If Search isn't being helpful, ask any of the longstanding regulars – on FWR or MN more broadly – and they'll reassure you there have been many threads over many years.

I'd like to post about what the current situation is, and why it's now blowing up all over X. I'd like you to stop trying to dictate what I post.

These are all from 2024 x the first I found.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5138663-5138663-talking-about-asian-grooming-gangs-some-history-and-a-few-realities-jo-phoenix

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5118394-why-does-this-country-have-very-little-compassion-for-the-victims-of-grooming-gangs

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5165879-grooming-gang-jailed-for-a-combined-106-years

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4985580-4985580-girls-left-at-mercy-of-grooming-gangs-in-rochdale-england-because-of-failings-by-senior-police-and-council-bosses-damning-report-says

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5128289-if-you-were-the-victim-of-a-gang

Searcg for ‘grooming gang’:

https://www.mumsnet.com/search#/?query=Grooming%20gang&page=1

The inquiry started in 2014/2015, so while it's important to implement the recommendations, it's also important to establish what is going on now, not 10 years ago.

Inquiries take years and cost tens of millions. We have had a lot of inquiries including a huge National Inquiry that only reported in 2022! There are ongoing tasks forces linking police forces all over the country. The important thing is to continue to act. Keep up the investigations and prosecutions. Gather more data. Take on board all the new guidelines.

In fact, with "great detail and with a great deal of thoughtful input" is one of the reasons I use MN, and particularly FWR. I like to get a variety of input.

(As ever keeping in mind the caveat that it's the internet and not all internet sprites are posting in good faith.)

I agree. Sammy Woodhead is on X saying that she’s been calling for an inquiry into every town and city for the last 12 years and nobody cared.

On Twitter now we have Nazir Afzal being attacked for "covering up" grooming gangs when EVEN THE DAILY MAIL accepts he was one of the leading figures in exposing the cover up and bringing prosecutions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12968583/The-heroes-helped-bring-Rochdale-grooming-gangs-former-detective-chief-prosecutor-local-councillor-battled-establishment-expose-shocking-abuse-young-schoolgirls-gangs-predatory-older-men.html

So when that new inquiry is published in 2029 we then have to do another one on the grounds that it's out of date?

Musk doesn’t give a shit about vulnerable, abused, working class girls in places he has never heard of. His motivation is to stir up division and promote the rise of the authoritarian hard right. He hates that the UK voted for a centre left government. He is wholly toxic.

Oh, so it’s fine for people to not give a shit about ‘abused, working class girls’ asking as they are on the left?

Seems more sensible to focus on preventing anything similar happening in the future, although that would assume Musk, Farage and their ilk actually care about the victims, which they don't.

Question is how do you prevent something from happening in the future when you haven’t fully understood what has happened in the past and when those who allowed something of this scale to happen are still working as police officers, counsellors and social workers and have never reflected on how their behaviour contributed to the abuse and have never been held to account.

We all know that Musk, Farage and others don’t give a shit about women but the real question at the moment is do Labour care because they are the ones with the power to do something even if it is simply implementing previous recommendations.

Of course not. What an obscene thing to say.

If its still happening then yes something else needs to be done. One inquiry and pretending the work is done, when girls and young women are still being harmed isn't good enough.

And to go back to my original post, councils should never be responsible for investigating grooming on their own patch and neither should be police. Its needs to be an entirely separate body.

So if the left do give a shit about vulnerable abused working class girls they really do need to get a grip and deal with this problem don’t they? Don’t let it fester for another 15 years. Don’t give the Right the opportunity to use it for political gain or to stir up hatred.

The Right are going to use it to stir up hatred whatever is done. They'll just tell lies.

That not a good reason for inaction.

The inquiries are independent. This is perfectly possible. There has not been ‘one inquiry’. There have been multiple inquiries both local and national that have cost tens of millions. Nobody is pretending the ‘work is done’ hence this sort of thing https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grooming-gangs-taskforce-arrests-hundreds-in-first-year. Eliminating child sex abuse by organised networks (which goes beyond the repulsive, sadistic Pakistani gangs and include eg county lines exploitation) can’t happen overnight.

Yes, I agree, whichever government is in needs to get a grip.

It's too important to be a party political issue.

(And I have no patience for people who see it merely as a useful issue to exploit for party gain.)

There doesn’t need to be any new legislation but there does need to be serious inquiry and top down push for how the police treat and believe sex abuse victims who they consider troublesome, asbo, addicted, truant especially in LWC communities.

if they don’t see you as a victim or see you as someone gets themselves into these situations due to criminal or troublesome behaviour you will be ignored.

This wider issue is being widely ignored so the behaviour and abuse continues.

all predators have to do is choose someone who doesn’t make a good victim and the harm is ignored.

Honestly I agree. There shouldn't be another inquiry. There should be a clear statement of action, immediate prosecutions as they did for the Southport rioters, fast-tracked deportations, stripping of citizenship for any dual citizens, legislation if required for anyone who tries to claim it's a breach of their human rights to be deported, etc.

If not - why not?

'Islamaphobic' is rapidly becoming the new 'transphobic' and basically means 'We are exempt from all scrutiny just because and raising any safeguarding concerns mean you're a hateful bigot!'

I actually think people do care. The court documents were fucking horrible, the description of what happened Mohammed Karrar’s victim was torture. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be disgusted. I think it’s a bit much to think just because someone is right wing they don’t actually care about the victims here. A lot of people have kids (Elon more than most) and know what an 11yr old girl looks like and are horrified.

Saying “don’t say this otherwise it gives succour to the racists” is precisely how we got here.

I would remind people who are complaining about the likes of musk and Farage it was primarily Labour councils who ignored industrialised rape of children. It shouldn’t matter but seeing any of this through a political lens detracts from the fact that children have been raped and tortured. Rape gangs still exist. We haven’t done enough.

I can't quite figure out what's going on here. I've not seen the letter that Oldham Council sent to the Home Office, only Jess Phillips' reply, so I'm unclear as to whether Oldham had a) informed the government of their intention to launch their own inquiry, or b) asked for formal approval to proceed with their own inquiry or c) asked the government to intervene and launch an enquiry their behalf.

I think the distinction's important. This line from Jess Phillips' response does suggest c):
'This is why I believe it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene.'

If c) is correct and Oldham Council asked for help and were given the brush off then I find that concerning. I'd also like to know what led to Oldham asking the government to step in as, given the unwelcome publicity that a national inquiry would generate for Oldham, I can't imagine they'd have made that decision lightly.

I was thinking more about the recent news

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4xnv02nr0o

Jess Phillips has said its "for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene"

I disagree with that, councils have behaved so terribly in response to this over many decades it should be taken out of their hands and central government should intervene and commission reviews.

And yes this stuff takes years to solve, but it's been going on for decades. Every political party, Tories, Lib dems in the coalition, and Labour have failed to act