Rotherham council’s decision to remove three children from a foster couple because they supported UKIP sparked huge levels of anger among the readers of this blog, and elsewhere. Today, seven months on, the council has admitted that the woman at the centre of the scandal, Common Purpose graduate Joyce Thacker, was wrong to say it was their membership of UKIP that saw the children taken away:
“The council can confirm that membership of Ukip would not prevent any individual from being considered as a foster carer in Rotherham and could not be a reason for removing foster children from a placement. We accept the impression left following media interviews on the morning of November 24 was that the removal of the children was solely because of the foster carers’ membership of Ukip and the council apologises for this. As this is a child care case, legal reasons continue to prevent us from releasing further details. However, we know that there are important lessons the council must learn.”
Remarkable that it took it so long for them to reach that conclusion. Just last week UKIP gained a council seat from Labour in their Rotherham heartland. No coincidence…
