Grooming gangs: inquiry, deportation and accountability

The allegation

The attack is that Andy Burnham failed victims or opposed proper scrutiny of grooming gangs. That does not match the record. The fair criticism is that local reviews have limits, especially when they cannot compel witnesses or documents. Burnham himself made that argument when he backed a national inquiry with compulsory powers.

The record

• After becoming Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham commissioned an independent assurance review into historical child sexual exploitation in Manchester and Rochdale. The work was later extended to Oldham.
• Those reviews exposed serious institutional failings, but they were not statutory public inquiries. They could not force every witness to attend or compel every document in the way a national statutory inquiry can.
• In January 2025, Burnham backed a limited national inquiry into grooming gangs with the power to compel evidence, so those with charges to answer could be held to account.
• In 2022, Burnham and Deputy Mayor Bev Hughes called on the Home Secretary to deport members of the Rochdale grooming gang. They said justice would only be seen to be fully served once the deportations were complete.

He called for groomers to be deported

This matters because the current attack often implies softness. The public record says otherwise. In June 2022, Burnham called on the Home Secretary to deport three Rochdale grooming gang members. The statement said victims had been forgotten and that the community could only begin to heal once the deportations were complete.

That is the position the programme takes forward. Grooming gang offenders should face prosecution, long sentences and deportation where they are foreign nationals or where citizenship deprivation is lawfully available. Public authorities that missed, minimised or concealed abuse should face compulsory evidence powers and personal accountability.

The programme answer

• A statutory inquiry model where the issue demands compulsory evidence, not a review that depends on voluntary cooperation.
• Fast-track courts and extended tribunal capacity, so justice is not delayed into meaninglessness.
• Returns infrastructure that makes deportation of serious foreign national offenders a real operational process, not a press release.
• Child protection systems that are inspected for outcomes, not paperwork, with failure escalated outside local institutions.