Rotherham Articles

There were at least 1,400 victims of appalling sexual exploitation between 1997 and 2013 in and around my constituency of Rotherham. Each and every one of them was a child we failed to protect, with some as young as 11 raped, abducted, trafficked, beaten and...

It has become rather easy to be elected as a Labour councillor in Rotherham over the last two decades. First you join the Labour party. Then you turn up at a sparsely attended branch meeting. Then you wait for a councillor to retire. It might be a long wait, but the...

Let’s be clear: Rotherham may be the worst case of child abuse in council care but if we do not change the way we conduct local government and politics it won’t be the last. First, let’s admit that our current method of scrutinising public services locally, and...

I encountered a media scrum outside Rotherham’s council offices this week, following Alexis Jay’s damning report into the exploitation and abuse of 1,400 children in the borough. And I listened to the assembled journalists speculate about which heads would roll, and...