Nigel Farage plans to mobilise his new regional power base of Reform councillors to try to force the Government to act on the scandal of child sex grooming gangs.
After winning 677 seats and seizing ten councils in the local elections, the Reform UK leader says his councillors will lobby Home Secretary Yvette Cooper for an inquiry into how men of Pakistani heritage were able to abuse mainly white girls in areas such as Rotherham and Oldham.
The Government has resisted calls for a national inquiry, arguing that it should be carried out at local level.
But Reform says this has been effectively blocked by Labour councillors in the affected areas.
The party’s electoral success, including two councils seized from Labour, has changed this dynamic.
Mr Farage said Reform councils would write to Ms Cooper to demand grooming gangs inquiries in their areas.
He said: ‘We’re putting the Government on notice: Reform councils will never sweep abuse by rape gangs under the carpet.’
The grooming scandal unfolded in 2001 when the names of taxi drivers who allegedly picked up girls from care homes in Rotherham to abuse them were passed to the police and local council.
Nigel Farage plans to mobilise his new regional power base of Reform councillors to try to force the Government to act on the scandal of child sex grooming gangs
The first convictions were not until 2010, with the latest in 2024 – a total of 61.
The scale of abuse was set out by Professor Alexis Jay’s independent inquiry in 2022, but none of her 20 recommendations has been implemented yet. Reform said that councillors such as Simon Evans, the deputy leader-elect of Lancashire Council, had been working with victims of the crimes to raise the need for inquiries.
Elizabeth Harper, who was 13 when she became a victim, joined Mr Farage at a Reform rally in Chester this year.
Commons Leader Lucy Powell was forced to apologise this month for suggesting on Radio 4’s Any Questions that raising concern over grooming gangs was ‘dog whistle’ politics.
When Reform’s Tim Montgomerie tried to question why Labour had blocked a national inquiry, she said: ‘Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we? Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we?’
Ms Powell is MP for Manchester Central which covers parts of Oldham, where some of the victims lived.
She quickly issued a ‘clarification’, saying: I was challenging the political point-scoring, not the issue itself.’
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has promised ‘a moment of reckoning’ for those who turned a blind eye to the grooming scandal.
The Reform UK leader says his councillors will lobby Home Secretary Yvette Cooper for an inquiry into how men of Pakistani heritage were able to abuse mainly white girls in areas such as Rotherham and Oldham
A review by Baroness Louise Casey into the ‘culture and societal drivers’ of the abuse will conclude this month.
Both Mr Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have backed calls for an 18-month national inquiry, with powers to compel witnesses to attend.
Ms Cooper’s spokeswoman said: ‘We welcome local areas working with us on local inquiries so we can uncover the truth, ensure more evil perpetrators face justice and more children are protected. Great that Farage and his team share this objective.’
Nandy and her entire department face chop
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s entire department is likely to disappear with her if she is fired by Sir Keir Starmer in the next reshuffle.
The Mail on Sunday revealed in March that Ms Nandy, right, was tipped for the axe as No 10 thought she was not ‘working hard enough’.
Now insiders say the Culture Department will be abolished, bringing to an end 33 years of a standalone department for arts and cultural matters.
