Reform UK has condemned Andy Burnham's record on the grooming gangs scandal, saying he failed to act when he had the power to stop the abuse. The party has promised to deliver justice to the survivors and to shatter the institutional protection that has allowed perpetrators to walk free.
Andy Burnham had the power to stop the grooming gangs . In the Makerfield constituency alone, countless girls endured horrific abuse at the hands of those predators.
Yet now Burnham seeks to use the very communities he failed so badly to catapult himself to power. Reform UK will not allow this. We will deliver the justice that these survivors have been denied for decades. The grooming gangs scandal represents the greatest state failure in modern British history.
Public bodies including councils, police and social services actively facilitated and concealed the systematic rape and exploitation of vulnerable children throughout the early 2000s. These were overwhelmingly white working-class girls, targeted by monstrous gangs disproportionately made up of Pakistani men. For years, the authorities placed community relations above the safety of British girls. Fathers attempting to rescue their daughters from houses of abuse found themselves arrested by police.
Victims were dismissed as troublemakers or willing participants. A social worker in Bradford accompanied a 15-year-old girl - raped and impregnated by her abuser - to a wedding and recommended she live with the man and his family. Police lost vital DNA evidence. Operations targeting these gangs were shut down.
Senior officers and councillors obsessed over potential far-Right backlash while real children suffered in silence. Andy Burnham's record on this issue is indefensible. In the Makerfield constituency alone, countless girls endured horrific abuse at the hands of those predators, writes Zia Yusuf. When the full horror in Greater Manchester finally emerged, Burnham as mayor resisted calls for a proper national inquiry for years, says Yusuf.
He served in the Home Office during Tony Blair's government at a time when reports of widespread abuse poured in. Shortly before he became a minister, in 2003, survivor Amy, forced into sex acts with multiple men at just 13 years old, reported her ordeal to South Yorkshire Police. The blood and DNA evidence she provided inexplicably disappeared. Her family wrote to the Home Office.
Nothing was done. Just months after Burnham was appointed as a Home Office minister in 2005, Greater Manchester Police closed down Operation Augusta. This was established after the horrific death of 15-year-old Victoria Agoglia, injected with heroin by a 50-year-old man. Instead of pursuing justice for Victoria, the police blamed her propensity to provide sexual favours.
The perpetrator received a pathetic three-and-a-half-year sentence and was never charged with causing her death. When the full horror in Greater Manchester finally emerged, Burnham as mayor resisted calls for a proper national inquiry for years. He only launched a limited local review after a television documentary forced his hand. Even that process was crippled.
The two men leading the review resigned after being blocked from accessing critical information. The report revealed that authorities feared inflaming community tensions more than protecting children from rape. Survivors have heckled Burnham at public meetings. His reply?
He stands by his record and accuses his critics of creating hate. Not a single council worker or police officer in Greater Manchester has faced criminal proceedings for their role in this betrayal. Inquiries and fine words achieve nothing when evidence is destroyed and both street predators and public officials walk free. Starmer's government's seven-month delay in acting on Baroness Casey's call to preserve records is unforgivable.
A Reform government will shatter this wall of institutional protection. Within our first 100 days, we will release every file, email, memo and record held by central government, local authorities, police forces and the Home Office relating to grooming gangs over the past 40 years. Starmer's government's seven-month delay in acting on Baroness Casey's call to preserve records is unforgivable, says Yusuf. The identities of victims will be protected, but no official will be allowed to hide.
Court records and transcripts will be made public. We will also increase funding for dedicated police and National Crime Agency taskforces by £300million, bringing the total to £400million. These teams will pursue every remaining perpetrator: Officers who looked the other way, the social workers who enabled abuse, the councillors and officials who suppressed evidence. The monsters who raped and trafficked these girls deserve life sentences.
Yet they operated for years because those paid to protect vulnerable children actively or passively assisted them. That institutional betrayal cuts even deeper. A Reform government will ensure every guilty party faces justice, whether they operate from council offices or the streets
Andy Burnham Grooming Gangs Reform UK Justice For Survivors Institutional Protection
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