Minister rejects Andy Burnham’s call for new national grooming gangs inquiry
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A Cabinet minister has rejected calls from a senior Labour figure for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs but left the door open for a future investigation. 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 Wigan MP, whose constituency falls within the county, 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.
