What does a national grooming inquiry mean for Greater Manchester?

Dear readers — over the weekend the Prime Minister announced a dramatic u-turn. After months of saying those calling for a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs were "jumping on the bandwagon" of right-wing agitators, Sir Keir Starmer said there would be one — following the recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey. In today’s briefing, we look at what that means for Greater Manchester and speak to the people who have been at the centre of that story in the city region.

We also reveal a string of new redundancies at the Royal Exchange Theatre, recommend the best pieces to read from over the weekend (apart from our own) and set you up with a bumper list of things to do this week, which our local weatherman assures us will be a hot one. Enjoy.

Meet Manchester Building Society’s new director

From today's sponsor: Deborah Walker has spent her whole working life in Manchester, and is passionate about the city’s success. She was instrumental in the development of legal apprenticeships in the city and in the scale up of the city’s Housing First homeless pilot.

Now she’s joining Manchester Building Society to deliver better financial access for the people and places of Greater Manchester. She will be responsible for the launch of the first branch on King Street this year, and building out across the whole city region. “We will be there for communities, offering products and services that people need and face-to-face advice that supports them through life’s biggest changes and challenges,” Walker says.

To find out more about the upcoming launch, click here.

Catch up and coming up

• On Wednesday, Ophira reported from Morrissey’s sold-out gig at the Co-op Live, and met the fans who have stayed true to him through his various controversies.
• Then Jack Dulhanty took a look at the proposed plans for a high speed rail link between Manchester and Liverpool, speaking to rail experts and economists about whether we really need one at all.
• Over the weekend, Mollie and Joshi revealed the third executive to be suspended by the University of Greater Manchester amid its burgeoning corruption scandal. Missed it? Catch up here.
• Coming up this Wednesday, Jack Walton spends a day with Greater Manchester’s first Reform UK councillor Allan Hopwood. It includes dirt bikes, farmer’s markets and guns.
• On Thursday, Ophira is in Moss Side, where residents are trying to stop a new development in the area because, they say, there are too many people living in Moss side as it is.
• And this weekend, freelancer Jessica Bradley delves into the dark side of Manchester Social, a group meant to help people new to the city meet one another, but which was recently the subject of concerning online allegations. 

This week’s weather

Tuesday ⛅ A bright start but turning cloudy with a few light showers during the afternoon. Feeling pleasant. Max 20°c.

Wednesday ⛅ Dry with sunny spells which will become increasingly prolonged. Turning warmer. Max 22°c.

Thursday ☀️ Very warm and mostly sunny with light winds. Max 28°c.

Friday ☀️ Another very warm day with dry conditions and sunny skies. Max 29°c.

Weekend ☀️ Remaining very warm and mostly dry with large amounts of sunshine. Temperatures will potentially peak at 31°c on Saturday and 32°c on Sunday

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

The big story: What does a national grooming inquiry mean for Greater Manchester?

Top line: On Friday, seven men were found guilty of non-recent child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rochdale. The men were arrested as part of Operation Lytton, a major investigation dedicated to CSE in the town between 2001 and 2006. The existence of Lytton, which started in 2015, was first revealed by The Mill in 2020. 

• The trial that convicted the men started in January, and was delayed by the original jury having to be discharged after a juror was suspected of having a racial bias, filing a question asking about the nationality of the suspects. It was argued the question was “wholly irrelevant" to the case. 
• Sara Rowbotham, the former sexual health worker and councillor who raised concerns about grooming in Rochdale some 20 years ago and was a witness at the trial, said: “it felt like it was never going to end,” and questioned why the men were not held on remand during the trial. Indeed, GMP are still looking for one suspect who absconded and was convicted in absentia. 

A change of heart: On Saturday Sir Keir Starmer announced, while flying to Canada for the G7 summit, that there would be a national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs of the kind convicted on Friday. It follows a recommendation by Baroness Louise Casey, whose review of grooming gangs is delivering its findings today. The statutory inquiry could see 800 cold cases followed up across the country, including in Rochdale and Oldham — where there has been calls for this scale of inquiry for years from local politicians and commentators like Raja Miah. 

U-turn? Earlier this year Starmer said MPs calling for a national grooming gangs inquiry were "jumping on the bandwagon” and "amplifying" far right commentators for attention. Saturday's news was a clear change of tack.

• Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the move as a “welcome u-turn”; Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demanded the Prime Minister apologise for “six wasted months”.
• “I’m really pleased it looks like the survivors will get what they want, which is a statutory inquiry,” says Brian Hobin, an independent councillor in Oldham and chair of the town’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Board. “But I don’t think we can start shouting from the rooftops just yet, because we need to see the devil of the detail.” 

Discontent in Oldham: The topic of grooming gangs has become heavily charged and toxic. As we covered back in 2021, councillors in Oldham have been accused of covering up abuse and multiple council leaders have been deposed, at least in part, by rabble-rousers like Raja Miah and his followers. The sway of online personas like Miah was greatly amplified earlier this year when they received the backing of Elon Musk, and councillors we have spoken to feel that, along with Casey’s recommendation, has fed into the decision to launch this new inquiry. 

• “This is all in reaction to online Facebook groups,” one Rochdale councillor said, speaking to The Mill on the condition of anonymity. “We have already had several (inquiries),” they say. “All this is going to do is rake over the same stuff. I don’t believe there is a stone unturned in Rochdale.”

Whether that is true for the rest of the country is to be seen. Sean Fielding, the former leader of Oldham Council who was accused by Miah of covering up CSE and later lost his council seat, told The Mill: “I hope it’s been done for the right reason, because they’re things to get to the bottom of and resolve, and not just to contain the political malaise and try to satisfy people who will never be satisfied.” 

Rowbotham, who in raising the alarm decades ago was amongst the first to highlight the exploitation of these children, supports the new inquiry. “Asking good questions and getting answers is important, she says. “If there are people, and there are people, around the country who were done wrong. That needs putting right.”

Quick hits

🎭 Last week we heard that there were a round of redundancies on the cards at the embattled Royal Exchange Theatre. When we got in touch, the theatre told us that staff had been informed of a potential restructure. “18 roles are at risk, with nearly half potentially facing redundancy,” a spokesperson said. Adding: “at the same time, new roles will be created.” Know more about this? Get in touch with us here. And, if you want to read more about the Royal Exchange, our long-read from March gets into how the theatre was forced to cancel one of its biggest shows last year.

🚲 Two cycleways — connecting Chorlton to Manchester City Centre and Deansgate to Whitworth Street — are finally completed. The two projects meant lots of disruptive roadworks, but the council says the number of people cycling through Chorlton has increased 85% in the process. Plus, a 6.5km uninterrupted cycleway from the south to the centre of the city is surely worth it, right? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

🎪 It was Parklife festival over the weekend and, as always, it rained. One of the main stages also had to be closed on the festival’s second day due to safety concerns. Organisers said it was due to “crowd movement” without much expansion. It meant homegrown DJ Josh Baker could not perform. “I can't really put into words what today was going to mean for me,” he said in a statement.

🏆 Nominations for the Manchester Culture Awards 2025 opened last week. Awards up this year include the Young Creative of the Year, Champions of Social Justice and Best Event. You can make a nomination here.

Home of the week 

Love to live in the thick of it all? This third floor 2-bed flat is slap bang in the middle of Princess Street. £225,000.

Our favourite reads

Manchester’s Mad Fer Doll World — i-D

Glitchy gabber, bedsheet frocks, and anti-London energy — Manchester’s own Kyle Macneill heads to the third edition of Doll World: an alternative, DIY fashion show hosted in the Northern quarter. The show is part rave, part murder mystery. “This isn’t a runway,” writes Macneill, “it’s a riot.”

The wound caused by GMP's 'gay witch-hunts' is festering - Stephen Watson should start the healing — Manchester Evening News

Last week, the newly-knighted chief constable of the GMP said that an apology for the force’s historical “gay witch-hunts” would make “little or no difference" to the people affected. MEN journalist Adam Maidment feels differently. “[B]y not apologising, we're sort of at a cross-roads,” he writes, “where progress in certain areas just can't, and won't, be made.”

Washington Post in talks with Substack about using its writers — The Guardian

And we got another little shout out in the Guardian over the weekend. In this article about the Washington Post’s plans to platform Substack writers, Michael Savage delves into the rise of Substack as a disruptor of social media. “In the UK, it has provided a platform for new local sites where newspapers have disappeared from the map,” he writes, name dropping The Mill as a classic example (we’ve since moved over to Ghost, by the way). 

Our to do list

Tuesday 

🖌️ There’s a language exchange at El Kabron on Mount Street, where you can practice new languages or just meet fellow polyglots (providing you’re also a polyglot). Entry is £1 and includes free pintxos. Info here.

🌞 Curator Dr Debbie Challis will be at the Portico discussing the library’s new display Holiday Sketches, based on artist Ann Mary Severn Newton’s visit to Rhodes in 1863. More info here.

Wednesday 

🎤 The festival of business is at the Alliance Manchester Business School this week. You’ll be able to catch our founder Joshi Herrmann on Thursday talking about the future of media, or hear from the UK’s businesses putting the planet at the heart of their growth. Info here.

🌸 And Sufi Qawwali group Fanna-Fi-Allah will be celebrating their 25th anniversary at the Stoller Hall. This will be a beautiful evening of sacred, spiritual poetry and music.

Thursday

🏳️‍🌈 Author and archivist Jon Savage will be at the John Rylands library celebrating the paperback release of his book The Secret Public: A Queer History of Pop. This event is free.

🎧 And Mancunian electronic music legends Marconi Union are heading to Band on the Wall for a night of dance music inspired by Dub, Jazz, Ambience, Minimal Techno and Electronica.

Got a To-Do that you’d like us to list? Tell us about it here.