Oldham councillor warns 'the floodgates have opened' as he lambasts 'disgraceful' grooming gangs 'cover-up'

In an exclusive interview with the People's Channel, Lord Michael Gove confirmed an attempt by Whitehall officials to cover up the grooming gangs in Rotherham.

He said: "Rotherham Council approached the Government and the Department for Education, where I was Secretary of State at the time, and asked us to join them in a legal case in order to prevent the times publishing.

"I looked at the material alongside Dominic and some other people in the department, and we contacted Rotherham Council and we said, yes, we will intervene in this case, but on behalf of The Times, because it's absolutely vital that the truth be told."

Reacting to Goves's uncovering of the attempt, Quigg told Good Afternoon Britain that it "doesn't surprise him at all", as the "rot goes all the way to the top".

Quigg said: "It doesn't surprise me at all. The rot doesn't necessarily just start at the local council level, it goes all the way up because these officials, in one way or another, would have known through reports going through to the Department for Education.

"These reports exist. We redacted an un-redacted version, and it's clear that basically, in the name of community relations, these things were whitewashed and hidden away so they wouldn't upset anybody."

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Highlighting the upcoming national inquiry, Quigg said there is "a lot to be uncovered" within the grooming gangs, both at local and national level.

Quigg explained: "As time passes on and the records will probably prove these things were covered up, if they can do it at a local level, then they can certainly do it at a national level, and I think there's a lot to be uncovered.

"What we're seeing now is that the floodgates have opened and no one's got nowhere to hide anymore."

Hitting out at the role of the local media in Oldham in failing to expose the rape gangs in the town, Quigg fumed: "Our local press has been absolutely absent and silent on this, and it's a disgrace that they didn't have the journalistic integrity to follow up on these cases.

"We've had survivors come forward who cover from a period back into the 90s, and even for as far as the 80s, who clearly came forward in the assurance review, who came to the full council meeting. But if you were to rely on the local press, you wouldn't have even known these cases existed."

Warning that many of those who ignored the cases now "work in the council", Quigg admits he is "baffled" that none of the scandal was picked up before.

He said: "A lot of these people who worked in the press or worked in the council comms team are now working for MPs or working in the councils. The famous media strategy at Oldham Council was that we didn't want to say that it was all Asian men that was doing this and targeting white working class girls.

"There was a fear that we shouldn't talk about this because it may inflame tensions. These people are now still at Oldham Council who devised that media strategy, and it it baffles me that this wasn't picked up."

Noting the Casey review, Quigg concluded: "We shouldn't hide from the truth, facts are facts, there are no alternative facts. There are no alternative versions of the truth, there is only the truth."