Wigan MP rejects Andy Burnham’s call for new national grooming gangs inquiry

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she disagreed with Andy Burnham after the Greater Manchester mayor expressed his support for a new investigation into historical child sexual abuse in areas including Oldham and Rochdale.

But the MP, whose constituency falls within the GM city region, said the Government would not rule out launching a further investigation “if it’s needed”.

Ministers have said their priority is acting on the 2022 recommendations of a seven-year inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay into child sexual abuse, which have not yet been implemented.

Asked during Friday’s broadcast round about Mr Burnham’s intervention, Ms Nandy told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I get the point that Andy’s making.

“He said that there was a case for a smaller, more limited national inquiry into the specific issues that the inquiry that he instigated could not pick up.

“I do understand that because the inquiry that we had here in Greater Manchester, astonishingly, some of the Greater Manchester Police officers refused to even take part, and the local inquiry couldn’t compel them to do so.”

She added: “But I do disagree with Andy actually. The reason that the Theresa May government set up a national inquiry, which ran for seven years and took evidence from thousands of victims, is precisely because of the points that Andy made.

“That inquiry found what every inquiry has found, that young girls weren’t believed because they were young, they were female, and they were working-class, and that the systems that were supposed to protect them protected themselves instead of protecting those brave young victims.”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned that launching a further inquiry, as opposition critics have demanded, could delay action on tackling child sexual abuse.

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Prof Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, with further details to be set out in the coming weeks.

Labour veteran Mr Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday: “I did hear last night coming out of that debate, ministers saying they are open to discussing issues now with survivors.

“I will add my voice into this and say I do think there is the case for a limited national inquiry that draws on reviews like the one that I commissioned, and the one we have seen in Rotherham, the one we have seen in Telford, to draw out some of these national issues and compel people to give evidence who then may have charges to answer and be held to account.”

The mayor said a series of reviews he commissioned into abuse in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale were limited compared to what a national investigation could achieve.

MPs on Wednesday rejected a Tory amendment to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which called for another national inquiry and, if approved, would have derailed the legislation.

Mr Burnham said that while he supported a new inquiry, MPs had been “right” to vote down the “opportunism” of the Conservative motion.

Blair-era former minister Harriet Harman has also suggested issues raised by the grooming gang scandal should be looked at in closer detail.

Downing Street has rejected suggestions that Sir Keir is wavering in his insistence that a national inquiry into grooming gangs is not necessary after he noted there was no “fixed view” among survivors about whether one was needed.

Ministers have suggested they are open-minded about the prospect of a future investigation if it becomes clear that survivors want one along with the implementation of Prof Jay’s recommendations.

The Conservatives have accused Labour MPs of having “turned a blind eye to justice” for victims of grooming gangs after their amendment was rejected.

But Ms Nandy said on Friday that she had spoken to survivors who had given evidence in the previous inquiry and had started to lose faith in the prospect of the process leading to concrete action.

“We cannot possibly ask victims to go through that again when not one single one of those recommendations has been implemented,” she said.

“Our message to victims is, we understand the time for action is long overdue and we are acting. The time for talking is over, the time for action is now.”

Asked whether the Government was ruling out another inquiry, Ms Nandy said: “The reason I think that people have heard from us that there may at some point in the future be another inquiry is because child abuse by its very nature is hidden, it’s secretive, and, at various points, I’m sure that more will come out about the scandals that we’ve heard.”