Reform demands answers on grooming gangs

The public is rightly focused on the violent attack that unfolded in Belfast on Monday. But today, Reform is keen to remind Labour ministers that it has not taken its eyes off the grooming gangs scandal, with swathes of questions remaining unanswered.

Party chairman Lee Anderson has written to his Labour counterpart, Anna Turley, demanding a more thorough explanation of how ‘the greatest state failure in British history’ unfolded. Anderson warns the party of government that it ‘cannot keep evading reasonable scrutiny’ and that ‘the public deserve the truth’. In his letter, the Ashfield MP says that ‘many of the complicit local authorities were (and are) Labour run’. He lists 50 questions and tells Ms Turley that ‘you must now set out the answers, clearly and in full’.

Responding to the letter, a Labour spokesperson said: ‘The exploitation of children by grooming gangs is an appalling scandal and this Labour Government is determined to deliver justice for victims and survivors. The independent Inquiry we have initiated with leave no stone unturned in uncovering the truth and ensuring the victims get the justice they deserve.’

They added that Reform ‘are attempting to deflect attention from Nigel Farage’s secret £5 million “gift” from his Thai-based crypto billionaire backer’.

Here are the questions in the letter Reform sets out specifically for Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham:

1. In 2003, the family of a survivor of the grooming gangs, ‘Amy’, wrote to then Home Secretary David Blunkett. Blunkett has denied ever receiving a letter. Andy Burnham was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Blunkett at the time — did he ever see this letter?
2. Just two months after Andy Burnham joined the Home Office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs, Greater Manchester Police shut down Operation Augusta, a grooming-gangs-focused police operation. Is he aware of why this operation was shut down and what role did he play?
3. Why did it take a BBC documentary, The Betrayed Girls, to ‘remind’ Andy Burnham of the grooming gangs crisis when he was a Home Office minister while it was taking place?
4. The Manchester inquiry into grooming gangs was severely hampered in its efforts. One of the leaders of the review, Malcolm Newsam, has said that ‘The review was never set up to be a wholesale review of the prevalence of CSE and grooming gangs, and never could have been given the limited access the review team had to information held by GMP’. Andy Burnham was Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester Police in his role as Mayor — why was the review not given the access it needed?
5. That same review’s findings included that the council and police’s fears of high-profile convictions of disproportionately Pakistani offenders being ‘capitalised on by a far-right agenda and lead to the victimisation of the Pakistani community’ were ‘legitimate’. Does Andy Burnham agree with this?
6. Burnham was booed and heckled by survivors at an extraordinary meeting of Oldham Council during a discussion of the 2022 report into police failings around child sexual abuse in Oldham. Does he agree that his review failed victims?
7. Maggie Oliver, a whistleblower who exposed Greater Manchester Police’s Rochdale grooming gang cover-up, has criticised Burnham for his handling of the scandal. Regarding ongoing abuse, she claimed that he ‘did not grasp the nettle’. Her summary was that ‘when it comes to leadership and courage and gripping what is going on now, unfortunately, he turned away’, and that as a result ‘we missed a huge opportunity to bring changes that are needed’. Does Andy Burnham regret his actions?

Here are the questions in the letter Reform sets out specifically for Sir Keir Starmer:

1. In June 2025 Keir Starmer said that MPs calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs were “jumping on the bandwagon of the far-right.” Does he still believe that this is a “far-right” bandwagon?
2. On the 8th of January 2025, Labour MPs were whipped to vote against a proposal for a national grooming gangs inquiry. Did Starmer personally authorise this?
3. On the 9th of January 2025 the Prime Minister’s spokesman said that “what we’ve heard from victims is that they don’t want to see another national inquiry.” Does the Prime Minister regret this comment?