At Lancashire County Council’s Full Council on 16 July 2026, councillors debated a Reform motion committing the county to full cooperation with the national grooming gangs inquiry. It passed on a recorded vote by 67 votes to 0. The debate is above.
Moved by Cllr Ellie Close, the motion commits Lancashire to candour and cooperation: handing over every document to the national statutory inquiry, backing every member of staff, serving or retired, who sits before that inquiry and tells the truth, and accepting in full the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s national audit. That includes recording the ethnicity of offenders, which Baroness Casey found was missing in around two-thirds of cases. As Cllr Close put it, “you cannot fix what you refuse to count.” She was also clear that the motion “is not about any community. It is about children, and the adults who owed them protection and failed them.”
The debate was grave rather than partisan. Cllr Close’s central point was about institutional failure: “For twenty years, too many institutions hid behind process, bureaucracy, or fear of difficult conversations. This council should not hide for twenty seconds.” Cllr Liam Thomson said the scandal “will undoubtedly go down as one of Britain’s darkest.” Cllr Mark Poulton argued the word “grooming” understated what had happened, describing it as “simply the method used to gain control of vulnerable children,” and called for every offender to be brought to justice and for anyone who “enabled, ignored or covered up these crimes” to be held fully to account. Cllr Simon Evans, the county council’s Deputy Leader, spoke about Lancashire’s place on the map for trafficking.
Cllr Close asked for a recorded vote, she said, “so the survivors of this county can read, by name, exactly who stood with them.” The motion was carried 67 to 0.
Cooperation is not a slogan. It means money, staff time, and standing behind the officer, serving or retired, who has to sit in front of that inquiry and tell the truth. Survivors were promised the truth for far too long and did not get it. This is Lancashire committing to give it.
You can watch our councillors’ speeches in full: Cllr Mark Poulton and Cllr Liam Thomson.