Rotherham council leader 'angry' at child sexual abuse being 'exploited for political advantage' after reforms
The leader of Rotherham Council has accused right-wing figures, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Elon Musk, of trying to exploit child sexual abuse and its victims for a “political advantage”.
In an exclusive interview with The Star, councillor Chris Read said Rotherham had made enormous strides to protect children and their families in the town since the Times investigation which placed the council at the heart of a nationwide scandal over grooming gangs.
“It always frustrates me and makes me angry that right-wing politicians will try to exploit this issue for political advantage,” he said.
“When Kemi Badenoch who was formerly the childrens minister suddenly decides there must be an inquiry after Elon Musk tweets - that is just trying to use this issue to a political advantage.”
Coun Read’s comments come in his first media interview since child sexual abuse and grooming gangs - and Rotherham - were thrust back into the spotlight after Elon Musk launched into a social media tirade accusing Labour ministers of being “enablers” in the rape of children at the hands of grooming gangs.
Coun Read said: “It’s a scary reminder of how the world works now. People learn things on the internet that are news to them, even though it may have happened years ago.
“It’s not like reading a newspaper and the paper goes in the bin afterwards... news doesn’t have to be new anymore.
“It’s deeply worrying that you have the world’s richest man owning a media platform that is built to promote him, whilst he is sat next to the next president of the United States... You would hope he’d behave properly.”
It is understandable why Rotherham has been back in the news when considering the town’s history with grooming gangs.
The town was at the heart of a 2012 investigation by The Times newspaper, which exposed historic and ongoing abuse perpetrated by predominantly Asian men against young girls in the town.
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Subsequent inquiries found Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police failed in their duty to protect the victims - despite numerous attempts by staff to raise the issue.
However, Coun Read - who became leader of Rotherham Council after the UK Government stepped in in 2015 - believes the authority has learnt the lessons of the inquiries and made strides to protect vulnerable families.
He said: “The short answer is that everything has changed since then. We’ve been through a huge cycle of change in senior management and years of government intervention.
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“In terms of the Rotherham experience, I think we have learnt all the things we can learn. I’m deeply dubious that a national inquiry will teach us anything about Rotherham.
“Is there a case for a piece of work that looks at this model of offending across the country? I don’t know yet.”
In the years since, Rotherham council childrens services have repeatedly been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, highlighting the council’s work to address its failures and prevent it from happening again.
Coun Read said: “The way I would describe this from my experience over the last few years, I was one of the people who was determined to make Rotherham better before we even learnt about child sexual exploitation.
“We chose to commission the Jay Report to ensure children are better protected in future. For the last 10 years in this job, it has been my life’s work to keep vulnerable children and families safe.
“I’m really proud of the progress we have made over the last 10 years and I know that we have kept families and children safe and protected them from this.
“For ordinary people who are caught up in this because they happen to live here, it is very difficult for those people that they are associated with terrible crimes and terrible failures that they had nothing to do with.”
The calls for fresh inquiries have created clear dividing lines in national politics.
Keir Starmer’s government has said it wants to get on with implementing recommendations from the Jay Report and Independent Inquiry for Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Labour have said the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which was debated on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, would provide additional protections for children.
The Conservatives tabled an amendment, which would have killed the bill, demanding a national inquiry.
That amendment, which would not have forced the government into an inquiry and was branded as “bandwagon jumping” by ministers, was defeated in the House of Commons.