Bradford Either Demands the Truth on Rape Gangs or Joins the Cover-Up

If Bradford Is Excluded From the Rape Gang Inquiry. This Is Why It Happened

On Tuesday, Bradford Council held its Annual Meeting. Reform councillor Stephen Place was voted in as leader of a council where his party holds 29 seats. The Conservatives hold 18, and have formed a group with independent councillor Luke Majkowski. Labour holds 18. A majority requires 46 of 90 seats. Reform and the Conservatives have 48 between them.

On 21 January 2025, Conservative Group Leader Councillor Rebecca Poulsen brought a motion before Bradford Council demanding a full independent national inquiry into rape gangs and child sexual exploitation across the Bradford district. Labour blocked it. The reason given, openly, was fear of becoming the next Rotherham. Reform has campaigned on grooming gang accountability as a national platform.

The votes to demand Bradford's inclusion in the National Rape Gang Inquiry now exist on Bradford Council, and so does the power to call the meeting that casts them. What does not yet exist is the decision to act.

Longfield's Criteria Can Bury Bradford Before the Inquiry Begins

On the same day Place took the leadership, Baroness Longfield told the Home Affairs Committee that Bradford has a strong case for inclusion in the inquiry's local investigations. She said an area announcement would come in six weeks. The inquiry's area selection criteria must be published before that announcement. Eleanor Kelly, one of the inquiry's panellists, confirmed at Tuesday's committee hearing that announcing Bradford before criteria are established would expose the inquiry to judicial review.

The criteria document is not an administrative formality. It is the mechanism by which the scope of any Bradford investigation will be set. It determines which institutions are examined, which time periods are covered, and how deep the inquiry goes.

There is a genuine possibility that those criteria are drafted in a way that limits what the inquiry looks at in Bradford, or excludes Bradford altogether. That document is being written now. Once published, it fixes the terms.

Bradford's new council majority has a narrow window to act before those terms are set.

Place Has the Power to Act. He Has Had It Since Tuesday.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, an extraordinary meeting of the council can be called at any time. The proper officer issues the notice, but the process can be triggered either by the chairman or by any five councillors signing a formal requisition. If the chairman does not act within seven days, those members can require the meeting to be called. Notice is then given to all councillors and the meeting proceeds.

Reform has 29 members. Place can requisition an extraordinary meeting without the Conservatives. He does not need the next scheduled full council date in July. He can put a formal motion demanding Bradford's full referral to the National Rape Gang Inquiry before the full council this month, inside the window in which the criteria are still being written.

The Conservatives brought exactly this motion under Labour's majority and were blocked. The councillors who voted it down are gone. Place has the arithmetic they never had and the procedural power to use it before the criteria document closes the question. All it needs is for both political parties to put aside their differences and vote together on an issue they both agree on.

I’m Raja Miah MBE. For seven years, I led a campaign that exposed how senior Labour politicians helped protect Pakistani rape gangs. The people of my town helped force the national inquiry.

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A Formal Motion Forces Longfield's Hand on Bradford's Terms, Not Hers

A formal council motion, passed by Bradford's elected majority before the criteria are published, enters the political landscape in which those criteria are being drafted. Longfield cannot ignore a demand from Bradford's own administration. It places on the public record that Bradford's council sought full accountability, and it creates the basis for a challenge if the criteria that emerge are designed to limit rather than expose what happened in the city.

If the criteria land first and Bradford is shaped or excluded by them, the council has no prior position from which to object. It becomes a body reacting to decisions made without its input, having had the power to act and chosen not to use it.

Fiona Goddard stood in that council chamber in January 2026 and presented 5,000 signatures. She was given a prepared non-answer by a leader who has since lost her seat. Place's administration inherits that record. A motion passed before the criteria are published is the clearest available break from it.

Inaction From Reform and the Conservatives Is a Choice, and the Nation Will Know It.

The power to call an extraordinary meeting now belongs to Reform. The votes are there. The criteria are being written. The window to influence if and how Bradford forms part of the national inquiry is open. It will not stay open.

If the criteria emerge in a form that limits Bradford's investigation, and Reform has not yet called the meeting, the question of why they waited will not have a satisfactory answer. Both Reform and the Conservatives campaigned on this. The blocked motion is on the record. The arithmetic has reversed. The only remaining variable is whether they use their powers before the document that governs Bradford's fate is finalised without them.

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