Oldham Rape Gang Cover Up Continues

How The Labour Government Is Trying To Exclude Oldham From The National Inquiry

The British state has a playbook for the rape gang scandals. When public outrage builds to breaking point, officials announce reviews, audits, listening exercises. These processes look like accountability, but they're designed to protect institutions. They don't compel documents. They don't force officials under oath. They don't bring prosecutions.

Oldham threatened to blow that playbook apart.

For six years, I led a campaign that exposed what officials tried to bury. Council cover-ups. Missing meeting minutes. Police inaction. The betrayal of survivors. It was a campaign that had me repeatedly arrested, falsely charged, smeared, attacked and attracted relentless attempts to silence me. But it worked. By 2025, the pressure was uncontainable and our team forced Oldham Council to write to the government requesting a statutory inquiry into the cover up of the gang rape of the town’s children. This triggered everything that was to follow.

January 2025: Six Years of Campaigning Force Oldham Onto the National Stage

On 16 January 2025, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs that survivors from Oldham had met with ministers that very morning. To casual observers, this might have looked like a sudden breakthrough.

It wasn't.

That meeting was only possible because of our six-year political campaign that had forced Oldham's failures into the open against fierce resistance. For years, Oldham's establishment tried to discredit campaigners and deny the scale of abuse. Yet piece by piece, through leaked documents, missing council minutes, survivor testimony, and relentless public pressure, the truth could no longer be suppressed. Charlie Peters and GB News championed it and Elon Musk had picked up on it. The scandal was now global.

The survivors who spoke to ministers in January did so because the political ground had already been shifted under their feet. The campaign made it impossible for Westminster to keep ignoring them.

And yet, even at this moment, Cooper resisted. Instead of conceding a statutory inquiry, she promised a three-month national audit by Baroness Casey and a package of locally led inquiries, including in Oldham. Tom Crowther KC was appointed to advise. From the start, the instinct was to keep the process local and non-statutory.

February 2025: Oldham Council Calls for a National Inquiry

On 12 February 2025, campaigners forced an emergency council meeting, rejecting Cooper's proposals outright. Every single councillor voted to support writing to the government demanding a national inquiry.

An emergency meeting, forced by campaigners. A unanimous vote. The council itself, the very body implicated in years of cover-up, admitting that only a statutory national inquiry could command trust. Oldham became the first local authority in Britain to make such a demand.

For survivors and campaigners, it looked like a breakthrough. Finally, even the town hall acknowledged what had been denied for so long.

March 2025: A Local Inquiry to Pre-Empt the National One

Within a month, betrayal returned.

On 12 March 2025, Labour leaders and council officials, the very people incriminated in the cover-up, held a secret meeting. They announced Oldham Council was pressing ahead with its own local inquiry, chaired by Tom Crowther KC.

The same council that had just demanded a statutory national inquiry now moved to keep control locally. A local inquiry cannot compel Home Office records. It cannot force ministers or cross-force police chiefs under oath. It cannot open up national patterns of failure. It defines its own scope and is funded by the very body under scrutiny.

In practice, Oldham Council voted for national scrutiny but acted to contain it.

June 2025: The Government U-Turns, But Parallel Processes Continue

By mid-June 2025, the pressure could not be ignored. Louise Casey's rapid audit confirmed what survivors and campaigners had said for years. National outrage grew. On 16 June, Yvette Cooper finally conceded that the government would establish a statutory national inquiry under the Inquiries Act, with full powers of compulsion.

It should have been a turning point.

But even then, Greater Manchester's leadership made clear they would continue to support Oldham's local inquiry. The message was unmistakeable. Oldham would be tied up locally while the statutory inquiry unfolded elsewhere.

August 2025: The "Truth Project" Downgrade

By August 2025, survivors learned that a senior civil servant had proposed turning Oldham's process into a "Truth Project", modelled on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

The IICSA Truth Project heard from over 6,000 survivors between 2015 and 2022. Survivors were "listened to", but their testimony was not tested, not verified, not cross-examined. No council leader was forced to resign. No police officer was held accountable. Not a single official was compelled.

That is the model now being offered to Oldham. A listening exercise in place of justice. Catharsis instead of accountability.

We've Seen This Before: Rotherham and Rochdale

This choreography is not new.

In Rotherham, the 2014 Jay Report exposed more than 1,400 victims, but it was a locally commissioned review. The narrative was framed as "systemic failings" rather than political choices. A year later, Louise Casey confirmed dysfunction in Rotherham Council, and eventually the case was folded into the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Rotherham became one of six case studies in IICSA's investigation into organised networks, which meant its scandal was absorbed into a vast national programme and treated as an example rather than a forensic inquiry into who specifically enabled the abuse.

In Rochdale, after the 2012 prosecutions, the borough safeguarding board ran a Serious Case Review. It avoided naming names, spoke of "lessons learned," and shielded senior figures. Rochdale too was later folded into IICSA's organised networks strand, again as a case study. The story of institutional betrayal was acknowledged but contained.

The result in both towns was the same. The national inquiry did not drill down into political responsibility. Instead, it spoke in generic terms about systemic failings, without forcing accountability from senior police officers, councillors, or Whitehall officials.

This is why whistleblowers like Maggie Oliver, the former GMP detective who exposed the Rochdale scandal, condemned IICSA. Maggie Oliver has publicly accused IICSA of being a "cover-up," arguing that her evidence was redacted and that the inquiry prioritised agency reports over victim testimony.

The lesson is clear. Local processes set the first draft of history, and national inquiries like IICSA have too often validated those limits instead of breaking through them.

And that is exactly what is happening in Oldham. First a local inquiry. Now a proposed Truth Project. Both are designed to manage the scandal within safe boundaries, so that when the statutory inquiry finally begins, Oldham's truth has already been boxed in.

The Through-Line: Every Step Avoids National Scrutiny

Look at the pattern.

• From 2019 to 2025, six years of campaigning exposes Oldham's failures and forces the issue onto Westminster's agenda.
• In January, survivors meet ministers. The government responds with audit and local inquiries, not a statutory process.
• In February, Oldham Council itself demanded a national statutory inquiry.
• In March, the same council presses ahead with a local inquiry, undermining its own motion.
• In June, the government concedes a statutory national inquiry, but local leaders insist Oldham's inquiry will continue in parallel.
• In August, a senior civil servant proposes a Truth Project, a listening exercise with no powers.

This is not a muddle. It is choreography. Every step has been designed to blunt the force of a statutory national inquiry.

What Should Happen Now

No council leader, no judge, no politician, and no survivor should now be proceeding with anything. There should be no parallel inquiries of any kind. No local processes. No Truth Projects. No "listening exercises" over in a few weeks.

There should only be the National Inquiry.

That inquiry has the powers to compel documents, to call witnesses, to drill down into what happened and who enabled it. Everything else is a distraction designed to fragment the evidence, pre-empt the findings, and shield those responsible.

Survivors Deserve More

Survivors in Oldham were promised justice. Instead, they are being offered theatre.

A statutory inquiry can compel documents, call witnesses, and name those responsible. A local inquiry cannot. A Truth Project certainly cannot. Survivors know the difference. And so should we.

But there is a twist that makes Oldham different. This town is not just another case study. Oldham was the town that forced the national inquiry. Survivors fought. Campaigners fought. The council itself was forced to admit it. Without that six-year campaign, without Oldham, there would be no statutory inquiry at all.

And yet now, the government is manoeuvring to exclude Oldham from the very inquiry it made inevitable. Survivors who fought hardest are being siphoned off into a powerless "listening exercise," while the statutory inquiry unfolds elsewhere.

That is not a mistake. It is not a coincidence. It is deliberate. And I suspect you all know why.

Please Help Me Finish This.

If you are coming to me new, my name is Raja Miah MBE. I am responsible for leading a six year campaign that blew the lid off how Labour Party politicians were involved in protecting Pakistani Rape Gangs.

You won’t find me on any news channel in the UK nor featured in the legacy press. I take this scandal to a place from where there is no coming back.

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