Four in running for election success

ROTHERHAM voters will go to the polls tomorrow to elect a replacement for ousted police chief Shaun Wright.

Four hopefuls will go head to head in the South Yorkshire-wide battle to find a successor as police and crime commissioner for Mr Wright, who resigned last month in the wake of Prof Alexis Jay’s child sex abuse report.

Labour, UKIP, the English Democrats and the Conservatives are all represented, with all four candidates promising to investigate what went wrong and bring child abusers to justice.

UKIP caused a stir in the campaign by launching a “hard-hitting” poster, features a teenage girl with the line: “There are 1,400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again”, referring to the 1,400 children Prof Jay estimated had been abuse victims in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis accused UKIP of a “cynical and deliberate” exploitation the victims, adding: “This poster marks a new and unacceptable low in their recent campaign activity.”

But Mr Clarkson said: “Politicians, both at the Town Halls and in uniform for years, were more worried about fashionable ideas than about protecting our young in their own towns and streets”.

Mr Clarkson will be up against Labour’s Dr Alan Billings, the English Democrats’ David Allen and Conservative Ian Walker in Thursday’s election.

Dr Billings said victims of child exploitation would be his “first priority”, adding: “I will ensure that victims of this awful crime are given the support they need, their abusers must be identified and prosecuted, and those who have failed the victims must be held to account.

“We don't want a career politician for this post and we cannot have a former South Yorkshire Police officer — it’s vital that the Police and Crime Commissioner can objectively and independently hold our police to account to bring about the real change we need.”

Mr Allen has vowed to change “the culture of policing” in South Yorkshire “to keep the consent and good faith of the public”.

He said: “The politically correct culture now is a restrictive ideology that prevents good men and women from doing their jobs properly and must be removed.”

Mr Walker vowed to cut red tape, scrap unnecessary targets and give criminals tougher sentences.

Of the child sex abuse scandal, he said he was “not tainted by past involvement with the police or local authorities”, but has “the skill and drive to solve these issues”.

For profiles of all the candidate, visit http://www.choosemypcc.org.uk/candidates/area/south-yorkshire.

And don’t forget to have your say in our poll on who you are voting for in the election – visit our Polls page to vote.

What do you think of the UKIP posters? Have your say on our Rotherham Tiser Facebook page, Tweet @rotherhamtiser or email [email protected].