THE POLITICS OF PROTECTING THE GROOMING GANGS COVER-UP

I am being told that powerful voices in Reform do not want the National Inquiry into the Rape Gangs to investigate Kirklees.

Apparently, there is no need for an inquiry that we fought for the best part of a decade to investigate a cover-up that spanned multiple decades across multiple towns under the jurisdiction of Kirklees Council.

I'm also reading that calling for an investigation into the cover-up of the industrial-scale gang rape of little White girls across Batley, Dewsbury and Huddersfield is NOT the job of the council.

Honestly, this is now absurd.

Of course it is the council's job to safeguard children. Nobody is asking councillors in Kirklees to do anything that is outside their remit or has not been done by other councillors across the country. We are demanding that they exercise their powers to force a council vote calling for Kirklees to be included in the National Inquiry.

Is this really what some of you are prepared to argue to defend Reform? Was it ever about the children for you, or was it always about exploiting the screams of little girls to promote your political party

Would any of you be making these excuses if Labour were running Kirklees Council? Would you accept a Labour council leader refusing to call the same vote

For years, we condemned those who put political loyalty, community allegiances and institutional reputations before the protection of children. Those principles do not change because the people now being questioned wear Reform rosettes.

I have a great deal more to say about Sarah Wood's response, the letter she sent to Baroness Longfield and the extraordinary excuses now being made on her behalf.

I have not turned on my camera for some time. One of the reasons has been because I find it painful speaking out against people that promised us that they were on our side when it came to protecting children. Perhaps it is time I forced myself to turn it on again.

In the meantime, there will be a follow up article published on Red Wall and the Rabble this weekend. Read it if you dare.

Raja Miah MBE

The fight to secure a National Statutory Inquiry into the rape gangs took the best part of a decade. Now we face another battle. Making sure it investigates the places, the people and the institutions that spent decades avoiding accountability.

And Kirklees is precisely why this matters.

Red Wall and the Rabble is now more than 16,000 strong. In the last six months, over 1,250 people have committed to a paid subscription. More than 3000,000 people have read one of my investigations this year.

We fought for Oldham. We helped bring pressure to bear in Bradford, Birmingham and across Wales. None of it was handed to us.

Now I am having to challenge Reform UK in Kirklees, just as I have challenged Labour politicians in Oldham and elsewhere. I do not care which political party is in charge. I care about the children who were raped, the institutions that failed them and the people who must be held accountable.

No political party funds my work. No institution stands behind me. Everything I publish remains free because this evidence must reach as many people as possible. The people who pay are the people who make that independence possible. We set out to secure 2,000 paid subscribers. We still need another 750.

If you value my independence, the kind that refuses to give politicians a free pass, whatever party they represent, please sign up to my newsletter and support my work.

I publish everything for free. There are no paywalls to access any of my work. All I ask, for those of you that can afford to do so, is support me with a paid subscription from £3 a month or £30 for the full year.

Thank You
Raja Miah MBE