PAKISTANI RAPE GANG PROTECTING OLDHAM COUNCIL HANDED A TAXI LICENCE TO A MAN CONVICTED OF ABDUCTING AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTING A 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN HIS CAR. In September 2014, under Labour leader Jim McMahon, the council’s head of licensing reported five convicted drivers to the Labour cabinet member responsible. Four of them were left on the road. One of those four went on to sexually assault a child in his taxi. The records of who made that decision no longer exist. Andy Burnham's review recorded every part of this. It named none of the people responsible before clearing the council of wrongdoing. OLDHAM COUNCIL LICENSED A CONVICTED CHILD SEX OFFENDER In 2001 a man was convicted of indecently assaulting and abducting a 13-year-old girl in his private hire car. He served 18 months in prison. In 2005 Oldham Council handed him a taxi licence. The council let him drive the public, children included, for ten years before it revoked his licence in January 2015. It licensed another man in 2003, two years after he was convicted of indecent assault. In September 2014 the council's head of licensing reported five licensed drivers to the Labour cabinet member responsible. The report set out their previous convictions, including sexual offences. After a screening exercise with Greater Manchester Police and the safeguarding board, one man was sent to a licensing panel and lost his licence. The other four kept driving. The next year one of those four men sexually assaulted a child in his taxi. When he was convicted in 2017, the judge asked why he had ever been given a licence. When Burnham's reviewers went looking for the records of who decided to keep those men driving, the records had gone. THE COUNCIL KNEW TAXIS WERE MOVING SEXUALLY EXPLOITED CHILDREN AROUND OLDHAM Oldham's social workers knew it by 2010. Staff in the council's own children's homes were writing down the registration numbers of the cars collecting girls. Council officers were warning taxi firms to stop carrying children in care. Girls were coming back to council children's homes in taxis they had no means of paying for. The council's own investigators suspected the girls were being sexually exploited to pay for those journeys. These were children in the council's care. One licensed driver admitted meeting an underage girl in an illegal shisha bar and using his taxi for sexual activity with her. A safeguarding officer told the council he was not fit to hold a licence. The council had his own admission in its files. The authorities understood the danger. They had the registration numbers, the girls' names and a driver's own admission. They had the power to take every one of those men off the road, yet the men kept driving. BURNHAM'S REVIEW NEVER NAMED WHO DID IT The law says a council cannot grant a taxi licence to anyone unless it is satisfied they are a fit and proper person. Oldham had the power to refuse every one of those men. It chose to license them. Burnham's reviewers had the council's licensing files. They could have named the councillors who sat on the panels that licensed those men in 2003 and 2005. They could have named the Labour cabinet member who received the 2014 report, established who decided that four convicted drivers could stay on the road and made every one of them answer for it in public. They did none of it. Whatever those people told the reviewers, the public was never told. Instead the reviewers blamed the national guidance of the time. No guidance has ever forced a council to hand a convicted child sex offender a licence to drive children around its town. They found a driver questioned over two separate sexual assaults on young female passengers, where police had told the licensing panel there was enough evidence to prosecute him for the first. The panel let him keep his licence. The reviewers themselves said it should have been revoked. They were told that drivers from one Oldham taxi firm had been exploiting children at the old Conservative Club. Greater Manchester Police, the force Burnham was responsible for, investigated itself and found nothing. The reviewers admitted they could not check the police's work, yet accepted the police's word. Then they wrote that only a small number of drivers were involved. They wrote that there was no evidence senior managers or councillors had covered up the exploitation of children by taxi drivers. Oldham Council had licensed child sex offenders and kept them driving with their convictions in front of it. It had lost the records of who made that decision. Burnham's review cleared it. THE TAXI TRADE HOLDS POWER IN OLDHAM Oldham's taxi trade is organised, and the council bends to it. The council's own equality assessment says large numbers of the town's Pakistani and Bangladeshi residents work in the trade. In 2021 the drivers' associations fought the council over the licence plates on the front of their cars. The council reinstated the plates, but the trade kept pushing. In June 2023, weeks after we removed Amanda Chadderton, Arooj Shah was back as Labour leader of Oldham Council. Her licensing committee rewrote the taxi policy following consultation with the trade. It took the identification plates off the front of every licensed vehicle and shrank the operator signs on the doors. The GMB union, which had campaigned for the change with the drivers, publicly thanked Shah for it. The same changes drew drivers licensed in Merseyside and the Midlands back onto Oldham licences, taking Oldham from 1,300 licensed drivers in April 2023 to 2,000 a year later. By 2025 its licensed fleet had more than doubled, to 2,397 vehicles. The chair of the council's licensing committee describes the council's job as working to grow the taxi trade. This is the town where children's home staff once had to write down taxi registrations to keep track of the cars taking girls away. Oldham Council took the plates off the front of its taxis, then licensed more of them than ever. WHY BOTH REFORM AND THE CONSERVATIVES MUST DEMAND THE LAW IS CHANGED Andy Burnham commissioned the review that cleared Oldham’s taxi licensing. As Prime Minister he leads the government that can make cameras compulsory in every taxi and private hire vehicle in England. He has not done it, and Labour will not do it while he leads them. There are too many Pakistani votes at stake. Neither the Conservatives or Reform are held to ransom this way. Rotherham put a camera in every licensed taxi once its own drivers were exposed abusing children. Only 9% of licensing authorities in England have done the same. In most of this country a child can still be put in the back of a licensed car with nothing recording what is done to her. Reform and the Conservatives say they stand with the victims of the rape gangs. Here is the test. Every council they run has the power to make a camera a condition of every taxi licence it issues, and none of them needs Burnham’s permission to use it. We demand they use it, in every one of those councils. Reform won 13 of the 20 seats contested in Oldham in May 2026. Its councillors can table the motion that makes cameras compulsory in every Oldham taxi. They can also force the council to publish the names of the councillors who licensed those men, and the cabinet member and officers who read the 2014 report and left four convicted drivers on the road. If Reform will not do it in the town where this happened, it will not do it anywhere. In Parliament we demand Reform and Conservative MPs force the vote Burnham will not hold. They must put down the amendment that makes cameras compulsory in every licensed taxi in England, with a deadline every council has to meet. It must also turn the ban on licensing child sex offenders from guidance into law. Oldham had that guidance and licensed them anyway. The National Inquiry must put every person who licensed those men and kept them driving under oath. It must ask how Oldham’s taxi trade came to hold that much power over the council that licenses it. The girls being driven back to Oldham’s children’s homes in taxis they could not pay for were the council’s own responsibility. The council licensed the cars, and it licensed the men driving them. Raja Miah MBE _________ You know what we are up against. The mainstream media will not touch my work. Institutions I investigate do not volunteer their records. Politicians do not suddenly decide to hold themselves to account. And yet, despite every attempt to stop us, we forced the national inquiry. We did that because enough ordinary people refused to go away. But getting the inquiry was never the end of this campaign. In many ways it was only the beginning. Now we have to watch where it goes, what it investigates, which places it avoids, which witnesses it calls, which records it obtains and whether the same institutions that failed these children are allowed to control the story again. Nobody else is going to do that work for us. And I cannot do it indefinitely working on my own. That is why I keep talking about 50,000 committed subscribers. It is not a vanity number. I did not pluck it out of the air. With fifty thousand people with me means when we uncover something important, it does not depend on a newspaper editor, a television producer or an algorithm deciding whether you are allowed to see it. It gives us reach they cannot easily shut down. But there is another reason. I need to build a proper backroom operation around this work. At the moment I am investigating, researching, writing, publishing, producing the videos, running the newsletter, dealing with the technology and then starting again. It is unsustainable. I need people behind me who can take care of the technical and production work so that I can spend my time doing the thing I do best. That is why we have been pushing so hard for new paid subscribers. 🔴 SIGN UP HERE 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk If you read my work and want it to continue, I need your help. Sign up for free. There are no paywalls to access any of my work. If you can afford the £3 a month or £30 for the year, please become a paid subscriber. We forced the inquiry. Now we need the numbers to make sure they cannot control what happens next. Unfortunately, we are reaching the end of the road where I can continue working this way. The paid subscriptions have stalled. Worse, tens of thousands of people are now reading these articles without even joining the free mailing list. The audience is growing, but the number of people actually standing behind the work is not growing with it. Over a million people engaged in my content this weekend. Only a small fraction followed up with a subscription to my newsletter This is becoming impossible to sustain. 🔴 SIGN UP HERE 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk Raja Miah MBE

GIRLS AS YOUNG AS 13 WERE BEING RAPED AND SOLD FOR SEX WHILE IN BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL'S CARE. WHEN THE WOMAN WHO INVESTIGATED THEIR ABUSE ACCUSED THE COUNCIL OF BURYING THE EVIDENCE, JESS PHILLIPS WAS BIRMINGHAM'S APPOINTED VICTIMS' CHAMPION. WHEN COUNCIL OFFICIALS DECLARED THERE HAD BEEN NO COVER-UP, SHE WAS STILL THERE. WEEKS LATER, SHE BECAME AN MP. These were children entrusted to Birmingham City Council for their protection. Dr Jill Jesson's investigation documented rape allegations, beatings, burns, pregnancies and girls taking overdoses. The council's own researcher found that Social Services had no systematic response to allegations of rape, but was concerned about protecting itself from bad publicity. Then, in November 2014, Jesson publicly accused Birmingham City Council of burying her findings. She said references to the ethnicity of the men had been removed and copies of her report ordered destroyed. JESS PHILLIPS WAS BIRMINGHAM'S FIRST VICTIMS' CHAMPION. She had been appointed in 2012. In April 2015, senior council officer Peter Hay acknowledged that an opportunity to protect children had been missed, but maintained there had been no cover-up. At the time, Phillips was still serving on Birmingham City Council. Weeks later, she was elected Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley. Phillips subsequently became the Government's Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. JESS PHILLIPS MUST BE CALLED TO GIVE EVIDENCE BEFORE THE NATIONAL STATUTORY GROOMING GANGS INQUIRY. She must answer questions about her time as Birmingham's Victims' Champion and what action she took when the allegations about the Jesson Report resurfaced. AND BIRMINGHAM TODAY. 143 children identified as at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation. 98 live investigations. Six confirmed grooming gangs. Two private-hire drivers stripped of their licences following police intelligence concerning potential sexual offences against children. Birmingham is finally on the national inquiry's list. But the fight now is over what evidence Baroness Longfield obtains and who she requires to answer for the decisions made. THE COUNCIL HAD A VICTIMS' CHAMPION WHEN THE ALLEGATIONS RESURFACED. THE PUBLIC DESERVES TO KNOW WHAT SHE DID. My latest investigation follows the evidence from the girls in Birmingham's care homes through to the council's handling of the report and Jess Phillips's subsequent political career. Read it here; redwallandtherabble.co.uk/th… The National Inquiry is entering the phase that will decide not just where it goes, but what it is prepared to confront once it gets there. Birmingham proves why that matters. We fought to get the city onto the list. Now, before the first witnesses have even been heard, a Pakistani politician is already trying to decide which questions should be pushed out of focus. That is why the pressure cannot stop at getting places named. Red Wall and the Rabble is now more than 15,000 strong. In the last three months, more than 1,000 people have committed to a paid subscription, and 250,000 people have read one of my investigations so far this year. We forced Oldham onto the list. We showed the way in Bradford. We campaigned relentlessly in Birmingham and across Wales, and both were named. None of it was handed to us. And now the next fight begins. Making sure the Inquiry actually asks the questions politicians and institutions spent decades avoiding. No political party funds this work. No institution stands behind me. Everything I publish remains free because the evidence needs to reach as many people as possible. The people who pay are the people who give me the independence to keep investigating, keep applying pressure and keep forcing these questions into the open. We set out to reach 2,000 paid subscribers. We still need another 1,000 more. If you want this Inquiry to go where the evidence leads, regardless of who it embarrasses, who it exposes or which political interests it threatens, become one of the next 1,000. 🔴 Subscribe here 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk We’re up against a machine, politicians, police, officials, and media, working together to shrink, sanitise, and bury the truth. This work survives because of you. If you’ve ever shared my posts, learned something, or felt less alone reading them, stand with me. I need your help. Raja Miah MBE

THE LITTLE GIRLS THAT WERE TAKEN AWAY TO BE GANG RAPED AND TRAFFICKED FROM BIRMINGHAM CARE HOMES BEGAN TAKING OVERDOSES. SOME DID THIS AS A PLEA FOR HELP. OTHERS WERE TRYING TO KILL THEMSELVES. INSTEAD OF PROTECTING CHILDREN IN ITS CARE, BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL WAS WORRIED ABOUT BAD PUBLICITY. In 1991 Dr Jill Jesson investigated the sexual exploitation of twenty girls in the council's care. She found evidence of serious psychological damage. Several had taken overdoses. Others had inflicted injuries on themselves. One girl was just 13 years old. Ten others were only 14 or 15. They were children Birmingham City Council had a legal responsibility to protect. The same investigation found that Birmingham Social Services had no systematic response to allegations of rape. BUT IT WAS CONCERNED ABOUT PROTECTING ITSELF FROM BAD PUBLICITY. Those are not my words. They are the findings of the council's own researcher. In section 5.7 of her report, Jesson identified a concern to protect the children's homes, their residents and the Social Services Department itself from bad publicity. Now consider what happened four years later. In December 1995 the report finally came before Birmingham councillors. The Director of Social Services, Richard Evans, put his own paper on the front of it. He told councillors there was no significant quantitative problem. He defended the decision not to circulate Jesson's findings. He warned against what he called "voyeuristic intrusion". And then he made an extraordinary accusation. He told councillors that concerns about the report being buried or ignored had been "deliberately manufactured". THE GIRLS' SUFFERING WAS DOCUMENTED. THE COUNCIL'S CONCERN ABOUT BAD PUBLICITY WAS DOCUMENTED. AND THE DIRECTOR DISMISSED CONCERNS ABOUT BURYING THE REPORT AS MANUFACTURED. Birmingham's councillors then voted against an enquiry. Twelve to five. The question is no longer simply what happened to those girls. IT IS WHO KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING, WHO DECIDED THE EVIDENCE SHOULD STAY OUT OF PUBLIC VIEW, AND WHO WAS PROTECTED BY THOSE DECISIONS. Jess Phillips was a Labour councillor on Birmingham City Council from 2011 to 2015. In 2012 the council made her its first Victims' Champion. She held that role in November 2014, when Jill Jesson told the Birmingham Mail that the council had buried her report and ordered the copies destroyed. She still held it in April 2015, when Peter Hay told the council's own scrutiny committee that the report had been withheld for reasons that were not clear, but that there had been no cover-up. Weeks later Phillips left for Westminster as the MP for Birmingham Yardley. So the council's champion for victims was in post while her own council was told it had buried a report into the rape of girls in its care, and while it cleared itself. Phillips then went on to become the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. As minister she rejected Oldham's request for a government-led inquiry into the rape gangs. The government she served in refused a national inquiry until Casey's audit forced its hand in June 2025. What did Birmingham's Victims' Champion do in 2014 and 2015 about the Jesson Report? What did she do to find out who ordered the copies destroyed, and who protected the men? And when she had the power as a minister to send an inquiry into her own city, why did she refuse? A national statutory inquiry now has the power to compel Birmingham City Council to surrender its records and answer questions under oath. When Jess Phillips was Birmingham's Victims' Champion, what did she do to uncover what had happened to the Jesson Report? What did she do to establish who protected the men exploiting girls in her city's care? AND BIRMINGHAM TODAY. 143 children identified as at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation. More than half of them had repeatedly gone missing. 98 live investigations. Six assessed as group-based. Two private hire drivers stripped of their licences following police intelligence about potential sexual offences against children. The council's published figures still omit the ethnicity and nationality of the suspects. Under pressure, Birmingham City Council has republished what it calls the Jesson Report. But what it has released is the version placed before councillors in 1995, complete with Richard Evans's paper warning against "voyeuristic intrusion". THE ORIGINAL, UNALTERED REPORT THAT JESSON SAYS SHE WROTE BEFORE THE ETHNICITY OF THE MEN WAS REMOVED HAS STILL NOT BEEN PUBLISHED. The national inquiry must establish what happened to the girls in Jesson's report, what was ever done about the men, and why the council treated its own findings as something to defend itself against. Read the investigation here: redwallandtherabble.co.uk/fo… I SHARE ALL OF MY CONTENT FOR FREE. THERE ARE NO PAYWALLS TO ACCESS ANY OF MY WORK. Unfortunately, we are reaching the end of the road where I can continue working this way. The paid subscriptions have stalled. Worse, tens of thousands of people are now reading these articles without even joining the free mailing list or even following my pages on X or Facebook. The audience is growing, but the number of people actually standing behind the work is not growing with it. This is becoming impossible to sustain. You know what we are up against. The mainstream media will not touch my work. Institutions I investigate do not volunteer their records. Politicians do not suddenly decide to hold themselves to account. And yet, despite all of that, we forced the national inquiry. We did that because enough ordinary people refused to go away. But getting the inquiry was never the end of this campaign. In many ways it was only the beginning. Now we have to watch where it goes, what it investigates, which places it avoids, which witnesses it calls, which records it obtains and whether the same institutions that failed these children are allowed to control the story again. Nobody else is going to do that work for us. And I cannot do it indefinitely working on my own. That is why I keep talking about 50,000 committed subscribers. It is not a vanity number. I did not pluck it out of the air. With fifty thousand people with me means when we uncover something important, it does not depend on a newspaper editor, a television producer or an algorithm deciding whether you are allowed to see it. It gives us reach they cannot easily shut down. But there is another reason. I need to build a proper backroom operation around this work. At the moment I am investigating, researching, writing, publishing, producing the videos, running the newsletter, dealing with the technology and then starting again. It is unsustainable. I need people behind me who can take care of the technical and production work so that I can spend my time doing the thing I do best. That is why we have been pushing so hard for new paid subscribers. 🔴 SIGN UP HERE 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk If you read my work and want it to continue, I need your help. Sign up for free. There are no paywalls to access any of my work. If you can afford the £3 a month or £30 for the year, please become a paid subscriber. We forced the inquiry. Now we need the numbers to make sure they cannot control what happens next. Raja Miah MBE