This week Lambeth Council was “strongly criticised” for allowing the abuse of up to 700 children in five of their care homes from the 1960s to 1990s. The report pulls no punches, and points the finger of blame squarely at the council’s hard left leadership, especially leader Ted Knight:

“The failure to set a council tax rate in 1986 must have constituted a huge distraction and required energies and resources that ought to have been focussed on frontline services. Mr Stephen Whaley was another who first became a councillor in 1986. He considered… “the pursuit of an ideological opposition to the government” (during the previous leadership of councillor Ted Knight) meant more energy had been spent by his predecessors on confronting the government than dealing with the issues within Lambeth Council”

You can’t play politics with people’s jobs and with people’s services…

The report continues:

“In the 1980s, politicised behaviour and turmoil dominated Lambeth Council. The desire to take on the government and to avoid setting a council tax rate became their primary purpose rather than the provision of quality services, including children’s social care. During that time, children in care became pawns in a toxic power game within Lambeth Council and between the council and central government. This turmoil and failure to act to improve children’s social care continued into the 1990s and beyond.”

Ted Knight died in April 2020. John McDonnell spoke at his funeral, claiming “He devoted his life to the greatest cause there is, humanity.” This child abuse report sets out in black and white just how wrong that eulogy was…

The report also examined the role of the unions. In 1999 UNISON’s branch secretary Jon Rogers decided the union would now advise its members “to play no further part in the investigation”, accusing him of scapegoating a member who worked in the council’s children’s department. The report published this week claims Rogers should have considered how “defending particular sectional interests can result in the failure to fully recognise the wider interests of children.” Rogers is now a senior official in the Brighton Labour party…