CULTURE Secretary Lisa Nandy rejected Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s calls for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs today.

Mr Burnham backed a “limited” new investigation into historical child sexual abuse in areas including Oldham and Rochdale.

MPs on Wednesday rejected a Tory amendment to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which called for another national inquiry but would have derailed the legislation.

The Labour veteran said that while they had been “right” to vote down the motion, “I did hear last night coming out of that debate, ministers saying they are open to discussing issues now with survivors.

“I will add my voice into this and say I do think there is the case for a limited national inquiry that draws on reviews like the one that I commissioned, and the one we have seen in Rotherham, the one we have seen in Telford, to draw out some of these national issues and compel people to give evidence who then may have charges to answer and be held to account.”

He added that a series of reviews he commissioned into abuse in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale were limited compared to what a national investigation could achieve.

Today Ms Nandy, whose Wigan constituency falls within the county, said she disagreed but that the government would not rule out launching a further investigation “if it’s needed.”

“I get the point that Andy’s making,” she added.

“He said that there was a case for a smaller, more limited national inquiry into the specific issues that the inquiry that he instigated could not pick up.

“I do understand that because the inquiry that we had here in Greater Manchester, astonishingly, some of the Greater Manchester Police officers refused to even take part, and the local inquiry couldn’t compel them to do so.”

But pointing to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,  that delivered its final report tying in previous inquiries in 2022, she added: “But I do disagree with Andy actually.

“That inquiry found what every inquiry has found, that young girls weren’t believed because they were young, they were female, and they were working-class, and that the systems that were supposed to protect them protected themselves instead of protecting those brave young victims.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has warned that launching a further inquiry could delay action on tackling child sexual abuse.