Paul Waugh backs an inquiry if that is “what victims want”
The Labour MP for a town where one of the most notorious child sexual exploitation cases of recent years occurred has backed a national inquiry if “that’s what victims want”.
The government resisted calls for a new national inquiry last week, arguing the findings from a previous report into child sexual abuse are still to be implemented.
Paul Waugh, MP for Rochdale, said he backed an inquiry with “key caveats”.
Nine men who exploited girls as young as 13 in Rochdale were jailed in 2012.
Waugh, who was elected last year, told BBC Politics North West: “I’m not against a national enquiry but it has got to have some key caveats.
“First, is it supported by victims because they are the people who have told their stories and it took a lot of bravery to tell those stories?”
“They fought for justice for many years, are they going to have to re-experience their trauma every time they explain this?
“They have done this time and time again.”
He also said any inquiry should “not cut across live police investigations”.
‘Public call for justice’
Speaking on the same programme, Councillor Martyn Cox, leader of the Conservatives on Bolton Council, said his party in government “made a terrible mistake in not introducing and calling for a national inquiry when in power”.
“But the Labour Party argument seems to be ‘better never than late’.
“I would much rather it was done late than it not done at all.”
On Saturday, Liverpool Walton Labour MP Dan Carden told The Liverpool Echo: “The public compassion for the victims, thousands of young British working-class girls and children, is real.
“The public call for justice must be heeded.”
Last week Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said he would back a “limited” national inquiry into child grooming gangs to compel people to give evidence so “those who may have charges to answer are held to account”.
He said a series of local reviews into abuse in Manchester, Rochdale and Oldham he commissioned were “limited” compared to what a public inquiry could achieve.
However, he was rebuffed by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy who said the Jay inquiry, set up by Theresa May’s government, had taken evidence from thousands of victims and addressed the issues he had raised.