Telford abuse has had relatively less reporting compared to ‘gossipy scandals’, Andrea Leadsom

Child sexual exploitation in Telford has received a “relative lack” of reporting compared to “more gossipy types of scandal”, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has said.

Concerns about the “priorities and values” of broadcast media were raised by Tory Chris Green (Bolton West), who said there had been “minimal attention” paid to events in Telford.

During Business questions in the Commons, he said after the Presidents Club dinner there had been “significant media scrutiny and a related urgent question in the House to highlight justified concerns”.

“Meanwhile, there has been minimal attention given to the events in Telford where hundreds of children have been abused and raped.

“Can we have a debate on the priorities and values of our broadcast media?”

Mrs Leadsom replied: “As (Theresa May) said yesterday, we have all been shocked by the horrific reports in Telford where some of our most vulnerable citizens have been preyed upon by terrible criminals and I think we should all be praising (Telford MP) Lucy Allan who has been totally right to speak out as she has.

“I’m very pleased that the authorities are now going to conduct an inquiry – it’s important this work gets under way as quickly as possible so we can get to the truth.

“And I think (Mr Green) raises an important point about the relative lack of reporting on this subject versus other perhaps more gossipy types of scandal, and he is right to raise the concern about even-handed reporting.”

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