The publication of Louise Casey’s report into rape gangs was a sobering affair. But not, apparently, for Shaun Davies, Labour MP for Telford since July 2024. He previously served as the Shropshire town’s council leader from 2016 to 2024. More than 1,000 children in Telford were sexually exploited over decades, according to the Independent Inquiry for Child Sexual Abuse in 2022.
Davies decided that yesterday was the perfect time to stand up in the House of Commons and criticise the Conservative government for not themselves investigating grooming gangs. He told the House that: ‘We did a local-based review because the then Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and the then local government Minister, Rishi Sunak, refused to provide a statutory inquiry into Telford.’
Yet, as council leader, Davies signed a letter to Rudd in September 2016, asking her not to investigate Telford. The crucial paragraph of the two page-letter is the following: ‘Given the recent findings of Ofsted and the fact that the Government’s own independent inquiry, chaired by Alexis Jay, is already committed to looking at what happened here in Telford, we do not feel at this time that a further inquiry is necessary.’
As Kemi Badenoch wrote on X after yesterday’s debate:
This Labour MP will be exposed soon enough. He sat in the chamber trembling, made this outrageous statement and ran off. He was of course the council leader in Telford who actively requested no national investigation and has the cheek to smear Amber Rudd and Rishi Sunak.
You can read the full incriminating letter here. Over to you Davies…
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