Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has dismissed claims that local grooming gang inquiries would provide local authorities with no new learning.
It comes after the Bradford District Safeguarding Children Partnership (BDSCP) — made up of Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police and the local Care Partnership — rejected a local MP’s calls for an grooming gangs inquiry, stating in January that examining child sex abuse in Bradford “would cost a huge amount of money” and is "unlikely to provide us with any new learning”.
But during questioning on the Home Affairs Select Committee, Ms Cooper contradicted this view, claiming that the government “want all local organisations to support local inquiries.”
Asked by Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore whether she agreed with Bradford Council’s comments, the Home Secretary said:
“In each of those cases [Oldham and Telford] they uncovered important new local information, but also they provided a basis for action to be taken… both to go after perpetrators and to ensure new standards are in place…”
The intervention puts the Home Secretary at odds with Bradford Council’s leadership and follows a recent meeting between Mr Moore, leading abuse lawyer David Greenwood and Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, where the pair presented the Minister with a detailed dossier which found tens of thousands of children may have been at risk of child sex abuse in the area since the 1990.
The Keighley and Ilkley MP also pressed the Home Secretary on the claim that an inquiry would be too expensive for the council, with the Home Secretary confirming that central government would provide funding for local inquiries.
In a further question to the Home Secretary, Mr Moore said:
“Does it not set off alarm bells to you that local leaders in Bradford were rejecting the prospect of a local inquiry within hours of your statement that you gave to the floor of the house in January…well before they would have had time to read the contents of your announcement”
Responding, Ms Cooper said: “I do recognise and the Safeguarding Minister has recognised the particular case that you have raised around Bradford” and said that the government’s next steps would come after a rapid national audit by Baroness Casey.
The exchange comes days after Home Office Minister Jess Phillips apologised to MPs for the delay in publishing the findings of the Government’s rapid audit, originally promised for May.
It also follows a fresh apology issued by Bradford Council to local survivor Fiona Goddard, who shared her experiences on a recent BBC Newsnight special.
Speaking after the Committee, Robbie Moore MP said:
"The Home Secretary’s comments today clearly challenge the narratives being pushed by those at the very top of Bradford Council, who are deliberately seeking to block my longstanding calls for full grooming gangs inquiry across Keighley and the Bradford District.
The excuses we are hearing from local authorities are the exact same excuses we heard in Oldham and Telford, and look what those inquiries eventually uncovered. Thousands of children failed in the most horrific of circumstances.
It is clear that when councils like Bradford are unwilling to volunteer themselves for these inquiries, ministers must step in and use statutory powers to compel them to act. It cannot be left to the very people who failed in the first place to decide whether or not an investigation happens in their area.”
