Labour rejects calls for Oldham grooming gang inquiry

[Signalbox]

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

That blog post compeletley misses the point and is what he stuffed the interview. (Yes I think he did horrendously as well - all the focus on him and precious Jess, champion of women and girls). The press didn't gather to hear what he had to say about Musk. They gathered to hear what he would say about the raped and murdered girls. That's what people are concerned about.

To be fair, beth rigby forced him to address musks comments by quoting what he said about jess phillips. Then she wrote a piece saying 'How the PM switched from ‘don’t feed the troll’ to finally taking on Musk's 'dangerous' disinformation'. So im not sure if the question was agreed before hand, or she forced starmer to say something?

Starmer gave an excellent response yesterday as opposed to this ..www.instagram.com/reel/DEhauMuo1q3/?igsh=YWdtMm8wYW5mNnpx

Different language but essentially BJ and Labour are in agreement on this. Neither want a public inquiry. Probably because they all know there has been a massive cover up under both Labour and Tory governments.

There have been prosecutions and subsequent recommendations. It's not being swept under the carpet as musk et Al would like to promote

Abuse survivors in Telford have signed a letter in support of Jess Phillips I see. I'm not her biggest fan but there seems to be a lot of confected outrage in the Tory media. How many more inquiries are needed exactly? Streeting has announced one about Social Care. Passing the buck to the next parliament. Just enforce the bloody laws already on the statute book and put rapists away for gods sake.

I think one of the issues is that the institutions that ignored and enabled the abuse have never really been held accountable. Arrests and recommendations (when they happen and let’s not fool ourselves that the men convicted account for all of those involved) are fine but can we be certain that this will not happen again when the same people are in the same jobs with potentially the same mindset.

Still we are seeing the term “right wing” being bandied around when the wrong type of person dares to express concern. This is exactly why it took so long for this whole issue to be taken seriously in the first place. The wrong type of person making accusations.

I don’t understand why the focus is on Musk when the focus should be on the victims/ survivors and their families. What are they saying? Do they feel that the previous inquiry came close to holding the institutions that allowed this to happen to account?

I think people are getting so wrapped up in the specific word "inquiry" that meaning is being lost.

People want to see JUSTICE done.

Including for all the rapists who got such trivial sentences and who are happily living back among their victims, or swanning around calling themselves Lord So-and-so, or still on councils and police forces quietly making complaints go away.

If an inquiry helps find more of them, all the better, but many are apparently already known to police. Or subject to deportation orders. So we can start today with those ones, with all the deserved fury they deserve.

Haven’t clicked on link but generally on his reaction Maggie Oliver responded to Starmer’s recent statement with anger

Former police detective Maggie Oliver, who helped blow the whistle on the scandal in Rochdale said she was 'incandescent with rage' at the PM's comments

‘I am no far-Right activist. I am a woman who gave 16 years of my life to the police and protecting children was No 1 priority in my life.

'All the victims that I know and that we support have had their lives destroyed. To write them off as far-Right extremists is insulting in the extreme.’

Starmer is a waste of space anyway, but well said Maggie Oliver

I thought @Signalbox put it very well here

Needing to understand how grooming gangs have operated for decades under the watchful eye of the police, councils and social services is the reason for action.

Noone is writing off the victims as far right extremists. By far the opposite. Did you see what starmer actually said ?

www.threads.net/@creativeblocksocial/post/DEfASh1NgC5?xmt=AQGzd7U2g3GLl1wUINN1ZOi-2qGRrJchUdUfu9HNFdm-hA

Do you think there is a clear line between the people you and Starmer are writing off as "far right" and the grooming gang victims, and their families and supporters? They're not middle class Guardian readers in Islington.

This is the interview with Maggie Oliver where she made those comments. She doesn't have a good opinion of Starmer as DPP.

x.com/talktv/status/1876559226492854471

His meaning wasn't at all clear. He referred to "attacks on Jess Phillips" and then he talked about "the poison of the far right" leading to "threats of violence" against JP. It is unclear who he is calling far right. It is unclear what he means by "attacks". Many will interpret attacks to mean criticism. What is clear is that many of those who are critical of Labour and JP have interpreted his words as applying to them. So he really should be more careful about what he is saying. Just sharing this from Sammy Woodhouse...

https://x.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1876272988812955749

No justice, no peace. It is beyond disgusting.

It’s totally confected outrage about an old story, cheerled by Elon Musk in his hard-to-understand vendetta against Starmer.

There has been a long and expensive public enquiry into CSA and its recommendations need to be fully implemented.

We have no need for another expensive enquiry to enrich a bunch of KCs to the tune of £ hundreds of millions.

And, ultimately, these enquiries (Post Office, Hillsborough etc etc) just delay and often prevent justice happening.

The Home Office is refusing to release information on the number of these rapists who have been deported

https://archive.ph/MUS1s

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/05/home-office-refusal-publish-data-groomers-zero-tolerarance/

Which makes me think the number must be low, if not zero.

I don't understand why they're being so cagey. Starmer and Labour have been in power for barely three months. Surely failure to deport would be easy to lay at the feet of the Tories? Perhaps I'm naive but it makes no sense to me unless they have no plan or, worse, no intent to get rid of these monsters.

There has been a long and expensive public enquiry into CSA

Maggie Oliver describes it as a "wasted opportunity" and I agree.

I think one of the issues is that the institutions that ignored and enabled the abuse have never really been held accountable. Arrests and recommendations (when they happen and let’s not fool ourselves that the men convicted account for all of those involved) are fine but can we be certain that this will not happen again when the same people are in the same jobs with potentially the same mindset.

Well said. IMO this should be the primary focus. I'm not trying to downplay the horrific things that the Pakistani rape gangs did or how mindboggingly widespread their organized abuse was. But, to me, the biggest problem has always been how many supposedly normal ppl, whose job it is to prevent abuse, look the other way or even enable that abuse. Yet there are rarely any consequences for them, they still keep their jobs, ppl still think of them as "good men" and upstanding citizens. Yes, the perps are sadists; put them in prison, deport them. But as long as the police, social workers, etc. look the other way, rape gangs will continue to victimize vulnerable children. I hope at some point society decides that this must change.

But, to me, the biggest problem has always been how many supposedly normal ppl, whose job it is to prevent abuse, look the other way or even enable that abuse. Yet there are rarely any consequences for them, they still keep their jobs, ppl still think of them as "good men" and upstanding citizens. Yes, the perps are sadists; put them in prison, deport them. But as long as the police, social workers, etc. look the other way, rape gangs will continue to victimize vulnerable children.

Absolutely, The reason I want an inquiry is that I don't see how that can be achieved without it.

She also said it was a whitewash and that they removed massive chunks of her evidence - which she has put on her site

www.themaggieoliverfoundation.com/images/in-the-media/Margaret-Oliver-Witness-Statement-IICSA-2.pdf

Saw this on Twitter today. From Prof Jay’s inquiry into child sex abuse.

She also said it was a whitewash and that they removed massive chunks of her evidence - which she has put on her site

I can fully believe it and will take a look. The fact that they didn't focus on grooming gangs but chose to disappear it in all CSA is telling.

Saw this on Twitter today. From Prof Jay’s inquiry into child sex abuse.

Maggie Oliver disagrees with this glowing picture of Starmer, as previously mentioned.

The previous enquiry took 8 years (!) and it led to 20 recommendations which still haven’t been fully implemented.

Wouldn’t it be better to finish implementing the previous enquiry’s recommendations than start another enquiry which might report in 2032 and take several more years to implement (if they ever are)?

These enquiries aren’t really set up to solve issues but to expensively kick the can down the road and keep high profile people safe from real consequences at huge taxpayer expense.

We have laws which need to be enforced, policing policies which need to be followed and a parliament to make new laws if needed.

Can anyone name a past enquiry which led to significant change? Anthony new police action due to the P.O enquiry. Are sub postmasters and sub postmistresses getting quicker and better compensation?

This demand for a new enquiry is pure Musk theatre…