Third members quits council and rest urged not to seek re-election

John Doyle has confirmed his immediate resignation as the cabinet member for adult social care and health following Paul Lakin’s resignation as leader and councillor and that of former Cabinet member for community cohesion, Mahroof Hussain, who revealed that he was leaving the authority and his position as a Boston ward councillor.

Lakin and Hussain admitted their failings but said the Cabinet had been well aware of the task ahead of them following the Jay Report last year — contrary to inspector Casey’s report saying 70 per cent of councillors were in denial about the findings of the Jay Report.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann said it would be impossible for current councillors to see victims and added: “There are those in Rotherham who do not get this, who think they are hard done by. I cannot see any victim being able to go into a councillor’s surgery and raise concerns.

“They have thought of this as a political game, a political attack, and the victims have been an afterthought. They still do not get it.”

Meanwhile, Labour councillor Chris Read has admitted the council “failed to deal with” child sex abuse and that there had been a “culture of denial” within the authority.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5live, Cllr Read said: ”I don’t think, hand on heart, that anybody set out to cover up abuse - deliberately to do that - but clearly things went very badly wrong along the way.

“Child sexual exploitation is a difficult issue to deal with in every community.”