Whitehall officials tried to convince Gove to go to court to cover up grooming scandal in 2011

Whitehall officials tried to person Michael Gove to spell to tribunal to screen up the grooming ungraded successful 2011, Sky News tin reveal.

Dominic Cummings, who was moving for Lord Gove astatine the time, has told Sky News that officials successful the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to assistance efforts by Rotherham Council halt a nationalist paper from exposing the scandal.

In an interrogation with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a "total cover-up".

Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled

The revelation shines a airy connected the organization reluctance of immoderate cardinal officials successful cardinal authorities to publically item the grooming gang scandal.

In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for assistance pursuing inquiries by The Times. The paper's past main reporter, the precocious Andrew Norfolk, was asking astir intersexual maltreatment and trafficking of children successful Rotherham.

The assembly went to Lord Gove's Department for Education for help. Officials considered the petition and past recommended to Lord Gove's bureau that the curate backmost a judicial reappraisal which might, if successful, halt The Times publishing the story.

Lord Gove rejected the petition connected the proposal of Mr Cummings. Sources person independently confirmed Mr Cummings' account.

Mr Cummings told Sky News: "Officials came to maine successful the Department of Education and said: 'There's this Times writer who wants to constitute the communicative astir these gangs. The section authorization wants to judicially reappraisal it and halt The Times publishing the story'.

"So I went to Michael Gove and said: 'This assembly is trying to really halt this and they're going to usage judicial review. You should archer the assembly that acold from siding with the assembly to halt The Times you volition constitute to the justice and manus implicit a full clump of documents and really stroke up the council's JR (judicial review).'

"Some officials wanted a full cover-up and were connected the broadside of the council...

"They wanted to assistance the section assembly bash the cover-up and halt The Times' reporting, but different officials, including successful the DfE backstage office, said this is wholly outrageous and we should stroke it up. Gove did, the judicial reappraisal got blown up, Norfolk stories ran."

The judicial reappraisal wanted by officials would person asked a justice to determine astir the lawfulness of The Times' work plans and the consequences that would travel from this accusation entering the nationalist domain.

A 2nd root told Sky News that the proposal from officials was to broadside with Rotherham Council and its attempts to halt work of details it did not privation successful the nationalist domain.

One of the motivations cited for stopping work would beryllium to forestall the identities of abused children entering the nationalist domain.

There was besides a fearfulness that work could acceptable backmost the existing attempts to halt the scandal, though incidents of maltreatment continued for galore years aft these cases.

Sources suggested that determination is besides a earthy hazard aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.

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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit run and was Boris Johnson's right-hand antheral successful Downing Street, has agelong pushed for a nationalist enquiry into grooming gangs to exposure failures astatine the bosom of government.

He said the inquiry, announced today, "will beryllium a full s**tshow for Whitehall due to the fact that it volition uncover however overmuch Whitehall worked to effort and screen up the full thing."

He besides described Mr Johnson, with whom helium has a long-standing animus, arsenic a "moron' for saying that wealth spent connected inquiries into historical kid intersexual maltreatment had been "spaffed up the wall".

Asked by Sky News political analogous Liz Bates wherefore helium had not pushed for a nationalist enquiry himself erstwhile helium worked successful Number 10 successful 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and past COVID had taken precedence.

"There are a cardinal things that I wanted to bash but successful 2019 we were dealing with the law crisis," helium said.

The Department for Education and Rotherham Council person been approached for comment.