Conservative MP Robbie Moore has demanded that criminal charges and convictions must follow inquiries into local authorities and police forces over failures in handling child sexual exploitation cases.
Moore also criticised the government’s initial response to calls for an inquiry, particularly the Prime Minister’s suggestion that those demanding action were “jumping on the far-right bandwagon”.
“This is a day for the victims and survivors that have been calling on this for a huge amount of time and I have as the Member of Parliament for Keighley within the Bradford district.
“So we are very pleased that, finally, the government have said that there’s going to be a national inquiry.
“But we need to now get to the detail on that, because what I’m unsure of is that if there is still going to be a spotlight on the Bradford district that I’ve been advocating consistently for a long period of time now.
Robbie Moore demanded convictions
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“Well, I’ve always advocated that the IICSA recommendation should have actually been put in place in full, from day one.
“It’s frustrating that never actually happened, and it’s frustrating that still we don’t have the timeframe associated with that from this Labour government.
“We now have the national inquiry coming down the line that has been announced today, yet we still don’t know if that’s going to focus on the Bradford district, as I’ve been advocating for.
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“And what this also says is this is actually a really damning day for those leaders in West Yorkshire, the leader of Bradford Council, the West Yorkshire mayor, who have consistently refused to get behind my campaign, and indeed [GB News] and indeed those of the many victims and survivors that have wanted that spotlight to be shone across Bradford district to make sure that this absolutely is investigated as robustly, as strongly as it can be, and that those perpetrators are properly held to account.”
He added: “What the Casey review didn’t focus on is local authorities, or indeed those organisations beyond the police forces that had safeguarding responsibility.
“I have always advocated and raised a huge level of concern around local authorities – indeed, mine in the Bradford district, because you have a local authority there that had children services stripped away from it under the last Conservative administration.
“So what I absolutely hope that, as we see going forward, that this isn’t just focusing on police forces, but it’s focusing on local authorities and in fact, any organisation that has had safeguarding responsibilities; dare I say, children’s care homes, for example, and how those have been signed off by local authorities.
Charlie Peters spoke to Robbie Moore on GB News
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“So this needs to be wide ranging, it needs to be done quickly, and it needs to be boots on the ground. There’s no good at all if this is a national inquiry that’s only focused here in Westminster.
“It needs to be out in the communities like Bradford and Keighley to get to grips with these issues.
“And finally, convictions must follow. And if it means that people lose their jobs, regardless of political colour, then so be it.”
The Home Secretary earlier announced that more than 800 grooming gang cases have been identified for review, with the figure expected to rise above 1,000.
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Cooper told MPs that Baroness Casey’s five-month audit found evidence of “over-representation” of suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage in grooming gangs, with authorities refusing to examine ethnicity “for fear of appearing racist.”
The report identified victims as young as 10, with Cooper stating that “children as young as 10 plied with drugs and alcohol, brutally raped by gangs of men” had been “disgracefully let down again and again by the authorities who were meant to protect them”.
Sir Keir Starmer announced at the weekend that he would accept Casey’s recommendation for a national inquiry, reversing his previous position where he accused proponents of “jumping on the bandwagon of the far-right”.
