Starmer accused of snubbing grooming gang whistleblower

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of snubbing the whistleblower responsible for exposing a major grooming gang in Rotherham.

The Prime Minister had been urged to lend his support to Jayne Senior, a youth services manager who was instrumental in publicising the plight of young white girls who were the victims of sexual grooming by men of mainly Pakistani heritage.

In 2020, when Sir Keir was leader of the opposition, he was asked to meet with Ms Senior, who was a Labour councillor at the time.

He was also urged to start an inquiry into Labour councillors accused of launching a “campaign to undermine her and damage her reputation in order to deflect from their failure to protect children”.

But his office declined both the meeting and to launch an inquiry. Ms Senior told The Telegraph that she found the response “shocking” and “dismissive”.

She said: “I really thought that because of what I had whistleblown on and my role in Rotherham, I thought he would have at least asked for more information, or agreed to meet me – but no.

“In opposition, Labour were up there shouting for women, for girls, for child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse – and then the minute that they become elected, where are they?”

Georgina Halford-Hall, the chief executive of Whistleblowers UK, wrote to Sir Keir in 2020, explaining that Ms Senior brought the issue of grooming gangs in Rotherham to national attention.

In her letter, Ms Halford-Hall said: “Jayne’s courage was recognised by the Queen who in 2016 invested upon her the MBE in recognition of her actions and her overwhelming commitment to the safety of children and the wider public interest.

“Notwithstanding the validation of Jayne’s whistleblowing and her ongoing campaign that not only exposed the industrial scale abuse of the most vulnerable children in society, whilst in the legal care of RMBC [Rotherham metropolitan borough council], she remains the target of retaliation which regrettably emanates from the Labour Party.

“As a result of Jayne’s campaign to expose these crimes some local elected members in the Labour Party and others responsible for the failures found themselves under scrutiny. This resulted in the resignations or removal of all cabinet members, the leader of the council, the police and crime commissioner in 2015.

“This has led to what can only be described as a hate campaign against Jayne where she has repeatedly been accused of wrongdoing in the absence of any evidence.”

Ms Halford-Hall urged Sir Keir to launch an investigation into the treatment of Ms Senior by fellow Labour members and asked him to meet with them.

However, his office responded saying that a meeting would not be possible, and declined to launch an investigation, saying it was not relevant to his role as leader of the party.

The following year, Ms Senior resigned as a Labour councillor, saying that she had been “the subject of ceaseless harassment and intimidation” and had received no support from the leader of the council.

In her resignation letter, she said: “There has been a systematic and longstanding campaign to undermine me as a person, as a Labour councillor and as a long-standing member and supporter of the Labour Party.”

Last week, it was revealed that Labour blocked a national public inquiry into the grooming scandal in which thousands of vulnerable girls were raped and sexually abused by gangs of mainly British Pakistani men.

Previous reports have been published into the failures of the police and local councils to prevent abuse in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, with officers and prosecutors avoiding taking action for fear of being called racist or Islamophobic.

Credit: BBC

Maggie Oliver, the whistleblower who helped uncover widespread abuse in Rochdale, said Sir Keir was as “guilty as anyone” over failures to address grooming gangs.

Ms Halford-Hall said: “Again we see the shameful resolve of the whole establishment to put as many obstacles in the way of justice for the 2,000+ victims and whistleblowers as possible. Politics and party loyalty continue to be priorities over the safety and wellbeing of children.

“Speaking up came at a very high price for whistleblowers like Jayne Senior who turned to the former director of public prosecutions to step in to protect her from members of his own party and the police who were determined to silence her.”

Ms Halford-Hall is campaigning for an office of the whistleblower to be set up that she said would “help prevent grooming gangs and expose those who protect them”.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “All complaints are treated seriously and thoroughly assessed in line with our rules and procedures. Complaints are assessed via a specific process, independent of the Leader’s Office, and this was clearly signposted in response to this correspondence at the time.”

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