WALES IS IN THE RAPE GANG INQUIRY. NOT ONE WELSH TOWN IS.

REFORM ASKED WESTMINSTER FOR A WELSH INQUIRY WHEN IT KNEW LONGFIELD CHOOSES THE TOWNS

Reform asked Westminster to put Wales in the inquiry when they knew their request had to go to Baroness Longfield. The Conservatives asked the Welsh Government for a Welsh inquiry that could not touch the police. Plaid voted both down and said Wales was already covered. Rhyl is the town Longfield must now investigate, and it is Reform's job to take the case to her.

REFORM ALREADY HAD LONGFIELD'S REPLY AND ASKED WESTMINSTER ANYWAY

On 16 September 2026 Reform used its opposition debate in the Senedd to demand that Wales be brought into Baroness Longfield's inquiry. Its motion "calls on the UK Government to ensure that Wales is investigated at the earliest opportunity as part of the Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs."

Reform asked the UK Government. The UK Government does not choose where that inquiry looks. Longfield and her panel do. The Home Secretary told the Commons on 9 December 2025 that the chair and panel decide the locations, and the inquiry published its selection criteria on 24 June 2026 saying the same.

Reform knew this already..

During the debate Cristiana Emsley, one of Reform's own Members of the Senedd, told the chamber that she had already written directly to Baroness Longfield because she wanted reassurance that Wales would not become a footnote. Longfield had replied. Emsley told the Senedd exactly what the reply said. Wales was technically within scope, the inquiry would visit Wales and meet victims, and Welsh areas might be considered for local investigation later. Emsley's own conclusion was that an office in Wales was not an investigation of Wales.

Reform therefore knew the direct route because Reform had already used it. It knew Longfield chose the locations because Longfield had already told one of its own members that Welsh locations could be considered later.

And then it tabled a motion asking the UK Government.

A motion aimed at Westminster could not embarrass Plaid and did not commit Reform to anything in Cardiff. It could not be lost in any way that hurt Reform. Reform chose it for those reasons, and 34 members voted for it.

THE CONSERVATIVES ASKED FOR AN INQUIRY THAT WOULD HAVE PROTECTED THE POLICE

The Welsh Conservatives, with seven seats, backed Reform's motion and added an amendment of their own. Paul Davies called on the Welsh Government "to commission a Wales-wide grooming gang inquiry into areas of devolved competence."

Policing in Wales is not devolved. A Welsh inquiry under the Inquiries Act can compel evidence only on devolved matters. The Conservative amendment would have put Denbighshire social services, the safeguarding board and Welsh Government officials under oath. North Wales Police, which cleared Mustafa Iqbal twice, could not have been called to it or questioned by it, and would not have had to give it any document.

Millar told the Senedd his inquiry would complement Longfield's. It would have left North Wales Police the one body nobody could question.

PLAID VOTED BOTH DOWN AND TOLD WALES IT WAS ALREADY COVERED

Four votes were taken on 16 September, and the same 47 members decided every one of them:

Reform's motion, calling on the UK Government: lost 37 to 47.
Plaid's amendment, tabled by Heledd Fychan, saying Wales already falls within Longfield's scope and pointing to the Welsh Government's child sexual abuse strategy for 2026 to 2036: passed 47 to 37.
The Conservative amendment, calling on the Welsh Government: lost 37 to 47.
The final Plaid-amended motion: passed 47 for, eight against, 29 abstaining.

The same 47 votes refused both demands and adopted the position that Wales is already covered. Nine days later a judge at Caernarfon jailed five people for 82 years for the rape and trafficking of three children in Rhyl, and the court heard that North Wales Police had arrested the men in 2022 and let them go twice.

Plaid has told the Senedd that Wales is inside Longfield's inquiry. If that is true, Plaid can tell Wales which Welsh town Longfield is investigating, because there is not one. Her first local investigations are Oldham, Bradford & Keighley, and London, and the inquiry has said more areas will be named.

Longfield's inquiry is the only one that can put North Wales Police under oath without Westminster's permission. Plaid says Wales is in it. Reform should take Plaid's own words back to the Senedd with a town named in them, and name Rhyl.

RHYL MEETS EVERY TEST LONGFIELD HAS PUBLISHED EXCEPT THE ONE WALES HAS TO SUPPLY

Rhyl is a specific case with a court record, and Longfield's criteria can be put against it one by one. The court heard that:

Four men were arrested in 2022 and released.
A victim's review was refused in 2023.
A ringleader with an indecent assault conviction was bailed in January 2024 and left to handcuff and rape a sixteen-year-old.
A trafficking risk order was breached with a fourth child.
Three girls were known to social services.
An assistant chief constable told the Welsh Government in January 2025 that Welsh cases were not organised while his own force had this ring on its books.
A safeguarding review has no power to compel anyone.

Longfield's published criteria are the experiences of victims and survivors, evidence of harm or risk, how organisations responded, previous reviews and unresolved issues, the level of public concern, and what an investigation would add to national learning.

Three victims gave evidence at a four-month trial. The ringleader went on raping children through two police decisions, a bail condition and a court order. A safeguarding review has not reported and cannot compel anyone. The police force released the men twice, a chief officer told the government Welsh cases were not organised, and a Welsh Government refused an inquiry twice, which is true of no English town on her list.

Rhyl meets every test but one on the public record. The one test Wales itself has to give Longfield is public concern, and that is what people in Wales have to do.

REFORM ALREADY KNOWS THE ROUTE. BIRMINGHAM IS USING IT TOO.

Birmingham is not on Longfield's list either. Jess Phillips, Sir Andrew Mitchell and the Conservative leader of Birmingham City Council, Robert Alden, have written to the inquiry across three parties asking for Birmingham to be included in the next round.

Birmingham has not been chosen yet. Its politicians have put a named place and a case in front of the people who decide.

Reform cannot say it does not know that route. Cristiana Emsley had already written directly to Longfield before Reform's Senedd debate and had already received her answer.

What Reform has not done is use its full political weight to put Rhyl in front of her. That is the difference now.

Before 25 September Emsley had asked Longfield about Wales. After 25 September Reform has a named Welsh town, five sentences from Caernarfon Crown Court and an institutional failure that can be measured directly against Longfield's published criteria.

Wales has a place and a case. Reform has 34 members of the Senedd, the opposition's time, councillors across Wales, a member for Rhyl's own constituency and a leader who has asked the First Minister why he let victims down.

Everything is in place.

REFORM HAS 34 MEMBERS AND EVERY ONE OF THEM HAS A JOB

None of these waits for another. All of them go to Longfield at the same time and all of them ask for Rhyl.

Rhyl Town Council passes a motion demanding that Rhyl be assessed for a local investigation and sends it to Longfield.
Denbighshire County Council runs the social services that had all three girls on their books. It passes the same motion. Reform's one seat on that council is Tony Thomas's, in Rhyl South, and he tables it.
Helen Jenner writes to Longfield as leader of the official opposition in Wales and asks that Rhyl be assessed against the inquiry's published criteria. She publishes her letter and the reply.
All 34 Reform Members of the Senedd sign that letter. Cristiana Emsley has already written to Longfield once and had a reply, and both go out with it, so Longfield can see the difference between a member asking whether Wales might be looked at and 34 members naming a town. Jenner then invites every other member of the Senedd to add their name. Darren Millar and the six other Conservatives, Labour's nine, the two Greens, the Liberal Democrat and any of Plaid's 43 who meant what they said about Wales being inside the inquiry. A letter naming Rhyl that carries 34 signatures is Reform's. One that carries 60 is the Senedd's, and Plaid's members who refuse to sign it have told Rhyl what they think of it.
Louise Emery is Reform's Member of the Senedd for Clwyd, the constituency Rhyl sits in. She writes to Longfield separately as the town's own member. Darren Millar holds the same constituency and has asked for a Welsh inquiry since January 2025, and he signs that one too.
Every Reform councillor in Wales writes to Longfield from their own council, on their own council's paper, naming Rhyl.
Reform's eight MPs put Rhyl to the Home Secretary at Westminster and add their names to Jenner's letter.
Reform's 34 Senedd members table a new motion naming Rhyl and addressed to the Welsh Government, calling on it to make a formal submission to Longfield that Rhyl be selected. Plaid told the Senedd that Wales is already inside the inquiry. A motion naming Rhyl makes Plaid vote on whether a Welsh town goes forward, and makes the 47 who voted no on 16 September say why four police failures do not qualify.

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PUBLIC CONCERN IS ON LONGFIELD'S LIST AND WALES HAS TO PUT IT IN FRONT OF HER

Public concern is one of the things Longfield's own criteria say she weighs. Oldham was chosen after years of people in Oldham refusing to be quiet. Longfield said Bradford and Keighley were chosen after survivors, campaigners and elected members pressed her, London's institutions pressed for London, and Birmingham is pressing.

Individual Welsh politicians have already contacted Longfield. What Wales has not yet put in front of her is a visible public campaign for Rhyl.

That changes when people in Wales write to her.

A thousand Welsh parents and grandparents put their names to a direct submission to Longfield asking for Rhyl to be selected as a local area investigation.
A demand from Wales, not from any party and not from anybody's election leaflet.
It goes to the inquiry with the council motions, the political letters and the Rhyl record.
Then two thousand.

A thousand names is public concern Longfield has to weigh. Wales can collect them before the inquiry names its next areas.

PUT RHYL ON THE LIST

Plaid, Reform and Longfield have all said Wales belongs in this inquiry. None of them has named Rhyl.

The people who can take Rhyl to Longfield are Rhyl Town Council, Tony Thomas in Denbighshire, Louise Emery for Clwyd, Cristiana Emsley, Helen Jenner, 34 Reform members, every Reform councillor in Wales and every Welsh parent prepared to sign their name. Nobody on that list has to wait for anybody else.

One of the girls told the court she cannot walk into Rhyl. Longfield has already heard from Welsh politicians about Wales. What she has not yet been publicly asked to do is investigate this town, this case and these failures.

That is our job. Help put Rhyl on the list.

My name is Raja Miah MBE. For eight years I have exposed how politicians, police and public bodies failed working class White girls who were systematically raped by Pakistani grooming gangs. Together, with the support of the people of Oldham, we forced the Government to concede a National Statutory Inquiry after years of resistance.

Now the harder fight begins.

Andy Burnham is no longer the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He is the Prime Minister. That does not place him beyond scrutiny. If anything, it makes scrutiny more important than ever.

As Mayor, Burnham commissioned a series of Assurance Reviews across Greater Manchester, including one in my hometown of Oldham. They were presented as a search for the truth. They were nothing of the sort. They were cover ups of cover ups that allowed those responsible to escape proper accountability.

Don't take my word for it. Even former Greater Manchester Police detective Maggie Oliver has described what happened in Oldham as 'nothing short of a cover up'.

Despite every effort to stop us, we forced a National Inquiry. Now Burnham and others are attempting to rewrite the history of what happened under their watch.

At present, the inquiry has made no commitment to examine Burnham's own role or the decisions taken during his time as Mayor. That must change before the Oldham investigations begin.

The pressure to protect a serving Prime Minister will be immense. The institutions that failed these girls will have every incentive to avoid putting the country's most powerful politician under oath. Much of the media will once again find reasons to look the other way.

That is why this campaign cannot slow down now.

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Raja Miah MBE