BRADFORD Council have ruled out an independent inquiry into historic child sexual abuse as they intend to make front-line protection for children their “absolute priority.”

It comes after MPs raised the matter in Parliament earlier this week.

Conservative Robbie Moore (Keighley) said the issue is being “swept under the carpet” and claimed “nothing really has changed” since concerns over grooming gangs linked to Keighley and across the Bradford district were first made by his Labour predecessor Ann Cryer.

He was joined by Tory colleagues Philip Davies (Shipley) and Lee Anderson (Ashfield) in demanding a “Rotherham-style inquiry".

The aim of the inquiry would be to look at the handling of child-sexual-exploitation reports by Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police and other agencies, ‘common threads’ of where abuse has taken place, and to look at what needs to change to avoid these crimes happening again.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Moore said: “Let’s call this problem out for what it is: predominantly a small minority of largely Pakistani Muslim men in West Yorkshire, including I’m sad to say in Keighley and across the Bradford district, that have been sexually exploiting young children for far too long.

“The Pakistani community are quite rightly outraged that the entire community is being branded with the same accusation. It is not fair and it is deeply offensive.”

Mr Moore added: “This isn’t about race or pitching communities against each other, it’s about looking at the facts so we can address them head-on and move forward.”

Mr Davies, intervening, said: “This is really just about the victims and making sure that a) they get the justice they deserve and b) we make sure there are no future victims of this terrible crime.”

He suggested the Government “should make sure we get this inquiry” if Bradford Council and others do not bring one forward in order to “get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong and make sure it never happens again”.

Speaking to the T&A, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, admitted all public services are currently stretched and outlined their main focus.

She said: “The Minister was clear that she doesn’t think Government should have a public inquiry regarding CSE in Bradford district. We also disagree with the MP for Keighley about a local public inquiry into CSE.

“All public services are stretched and we have to focus on what the Minister highlighted as the absolute priority which is front-line protection of children now.

“For historic crimes, it doesn’t matter when or who perpetrated the crime, they will be caught and they will be punished. Arrests, prosecutions and imprisonments have resulted already and this work continues.”

A damning review was released this summer into child sexual exploitation and child safeguarding practices across the Bradford district over the last 20 years.

The review which focused on five children found they had experienced grotesque sexual abuse, there had been multi-agency failings by Bradford Council and that the council are still missing signs of child sexual abuse.

MPs heard a recent review has taken place but Mr Moore labelled it “light” and “limited”, and argued a wider inquiry is required to “understand the scale” of the problems.

Cllr Hinchcliffe added: “In Bradford we have already had an independent CSE review and there are clear recommendations which all agencies in Bradford district are implementing. I’d encourage other local authorities to do likewise.

“As well as the recent independent report, we’ve commissioned 56 other reports on Child Sexual Exploitation in the Bradford district over the last six years. Each one of these has been debated in public, for all to see, all the information is out there.

“We also referred ourselves to the Government’s national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) and supported their work. We know that in the past agencies let children down.

“Those children should have been protected but weren’t. In the debate Government acknowledged that this was a national failing, not just a local one.”