Oldham councillor Lewis Quigg has hit out at local authorities for their "silence" on grooming gangs, claiming they were "whitewashed" and "hidden away" through fears of "inflaming tensions".Speaking to GB News, Quigg welcomed the national inquiry in the hope that it will "open the floodgates" on all of those who attempted to "cover-up" the nationwide scandal.FULL STORY HERE.
00:00Uldum has been, of course, at the epicentre of this story for much of this year.
00:05What do you make there of the suggestion that there are failings not just at the local level, but actually at the Whitehall level too?
00:15It doesn't surprise me at all.
00:18It's the rot doesn't necessarily just start at the local council level.
00:22It goes all the way up because these officials in one way or another would have known through reports going through to the DfE.
00:31I think as Dominic Cummins said in his interview, you know, these reports exist, you know, a redacted and unredacted version.
00:37And it's clear that basically, you know, in the name of community relations, these things were whitewashed and hidden away so they wouldn't upset anybody.
00:46But as time passes on, and it's the records will probably prove these things were covered up.
00:51And if they can do it at a local level, a micro level, then they can certainly do it at a national level.
00:57And I think there's a lot to be uncovered.
01:00Yeah, I mean, Michael Gove there saying that Rotherham Council was very much pushing this, asking the Department of Education,
01:06asking him to join them in their legal case to prevent the Times newspaper from publishing any of these claims about grooming gangs and the like.
01:16Could you say the same about Uldum?
01:17I couldn't say the same about Uldum because there's no, I've not got any proof to hand.
01:23But what I could say, Emily, is that our local press has been absolutely absent and silent on this.
01:29And it's a disgrace that they didn't have the journalistic integrity to follow up on these cases because we've had survivors come forward who cover from a period back into the 90s and even as far as the 80s,
01:42who clearly came forward in the assurance review, who came to the full council meeting, who came to a mic and actually came to their cases.
01:51Yet if you were to rely on the local press, you wouldn't have even known these cases existed.
01:55And a lot of these people who now worked in the press or worked in the council comms team are now working for MPs or are working in the council still.
02:07You know, the famous media strategy at Uldum Council was, you know, the Operation Messenger is that we didn't want to disprocute, you know,
02:14say that it was all Asian men that was doing this and it was targeting white working class girls.
02:20These people are now still at Uldum Council who worked in that communications department that devised that media strategy.
02:27These people still work in one way or another in the media who now sit in offices of MPs.
02:35And it baffles me that this wasn't picked up.
02:39It wasn't picked up.
02:40Well, it clearly was.
02:42People were going to the press, going to the Department for Education, going to the local council,
02:49going to the police.
02:50All of this is constant.
02:53It isn't new.
02:56But what we're seeing now is that the floodgates have opened and no one's got nowhere to hide anymore.
03:03Well, let's hope so, Lewis, because we're relying on this national inquiry, aren't we?
03:08We're relying on this national inquiry, being able to call these people and haul them in in front of the inquiry so that they actually tell the truth on this.
03:17Because, I mean, it's pretty clear that the rot is at all levels, isn't it, Lewis?
03:22An uncomfortable truth, because I think that from the 2001 riots, there was a fear that the community cohesion, the tensions,
03:33and it's still language that is used today, surrounding this issue, was that we shouldn't talk about this because it may inflame tensions.
03:43But I think, as Lewis Casey's review has made clear, we shouldn't hide from the truth.
03:52Facts are facts.
03:53There are not alternative facts.
03:54There are not alternative versions of the truth.
03:57There is only the truth.
03:58Yeah, absolutely right.
03:59And if you are honest with it, then people will respond according to it.
04:04Well, this is why it's so important to have this statutory inquiry where witnesses can be compelled.
04:07And as you rightly say, there is nowhere to hide.
04:10But Lewis Quigg, Oldham Councillor, thanks indeed for joining us and talking through this issue.
