Ex-MP blasting Labour over grooming gang inquiry met child abuse chair - and didn't ask for one

Nick Fletcher, who lost the newly created Doncaster East and Isle of Axholme seat to Labour’s Lee Pitcher at last July’s General Election, shared a photo of Mr Pitcher with the words: “Do you think there should be an inquiry into grooming gangs? Lee Pitcher doesn’t.

“They just voted against a full national inquiry into the rape gangs grooming scandal.”

It has now emerged that Mr Fletcher, who is bidding to become the city’s mayor at this year’s mayoral election, was present at a House of Commons Education Selection Committee in January 2023 to discuss an independent inquiry into child sex abuse when Professor Jay, who led the investigation into child exploitation in Rotherham, was in attendance.

Several other MPs were also present – but a transcript of the session reveals Mr Fletcher only spoke twice at the hearing, asking Prof Jay if online platforms were being used in child grooming, with no call for any kind of inquiry.

Prof Jay, the former chair of an wide ranging inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales has since said there should be no more inquiries into grooming gangs – because it will further delay action by Government.

She said there had already been a delay of more than two years in implementing her independent inquiry into child sexual abuse report and that “the time has passed for more inquiries”.

Her comments came after demands for a new inquiry looking at all instances of grooming gang scandals – from Oldham to Telford and Oxford – which was sparked by posts on X by the tech billionaire Elon Musk and backed by the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch.

Jay, who authored a comprehensive report following a seven year inquiry at a cost of £200 million on child sexual exploitation including the mass child sexual abuse in Rotherham, predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage, distanced herself from calls for a new wider inquiry into grooming gangs.

“We have learned quite a lot from those reviews that have already been undertaken. But locally, people need to step up to the mark and do the sorts of things that have been recommended,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I think there are something like 400 recommendations that we identified … in all the reviews that had already been carried out, and many of those were simply not met.

“We’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions, and especially for those victims and survivors who’ve had the courage to come forward … they clearly want action, and we have set out what action is required, and people should just get on with it locally and nationally.”

“I’ve certainly been very unhappy about the politicisation of child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse in the way that many people, sometimes in a very uninformed way, have waded into the argument,” Jay said.

“I’ve heard very little in the public discourse that’s taken place in the last few days – if you could dignify it with that description – that have mentioned children and the appalling and lifelong effects that child sexual abuse can have on people.”

There were 20 recommendations made by the child sex abuse inquiry and presented to the previous Conservative govenrment – only five have been acted on – and none were implemented.