Six groomers locked up for abuse of girls
Isolated May brings shamed ally back to shore up top team Junior minister hoisted into Brexit role no one else wants
JUDGMENT Sarah Wright SIX men who groomed and sexually abused five young girls over seven years were jailed yesterday for a total of 101 years.
The gang were sentenced for a total of 22 counts including rape and indecent assault.
Judge Sarah Wright told them at Sheffield crown court: “You can have been in no doubt that the complainants were vulnerable in the extreme.”
The six Asian men from Rotherham and Sheffield abused five girls under 16 in the Rotherham area between 1998 and 2005.
Mohammed Imran Akhtar, 37, three indecent assaults, rape, 23yrs. Nabeel Kurshid, 35, two rapes, indecent assault, 19yrs. Asif Ali, 33, indecent assault, 10yrs. Iqlak Yousaf, 34, two rapes, indecent assault, 20yrs. Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, 39, rape, 15yrs. Tanweer Ali, 37, indecent assault, two rapes, 14yrs. DESPERATE Theresa May has brought disgraced Amber Rudd back into her Cabinet as she rushes to plug gaps in her top team left by Brexit walkouts.
In yet another emergency reshuffle, the Prime Minister rehired the former Home Secretary to fill the Work and Pensions role left vacant by quitter Esther McVey.
Isolated Mrs May was also forced to appoint an obscure junior minister as Brexit Secretary after several big names turned down the job Dominic Raab flounced out of on Thursday.
Ms Rudd will lead a department under fire over the Universal Credit fiasco – just seven months after quitting as Home Secretary over her handling of the Windrush scandal.
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jon Trickett said: “Appointing a disgraced former minister only recently forced to resign for her role in another scandal is a desperate choice by a weak PM.”
Labour MP David Lammy, who campaigned for Windrush victims, said Ms Rudd’s appointment was “wrong”.
Leave-supporting Stephen Barclay will step into the Brexit role in a shock promotion from his junior ministerial role in the Department of Health.
But as Mrs May takes sole control of Brexit negotiations, his role is limited to domestic delivery of Brexit, preparations for leaving with or without a deal and shepherding legislation through Parliament, Whitehall sources said.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove SHE’S BACK Rudd returns to Cabinet
had turned down the post, saying he would only take it if he could renegotiate the EU withdrawal agreement.
The Daily Mirror understands other senior Cabinet ministers were also offered the job but Mrs May eventually had to settle on Mr Barclay. Downing Street did not deny the post had been offered to others before the North-East Cambridgeshire MP, but said: “He was the PM’s choice for the job.”
Separately, ministerial roles went to Stephen Hammond in the Health Department and John Penrose in the Northern Ireland Office, and Kwasi Kwarteng got a junior Brexit role.
The reshuffle came after Mrs May suffered seven resignations in just 24 hours in a backlash against her draft withdrawal agreement for Brexit.
She is still braced for a vote of no confidence in her leadership from backbench Tory MPs, which could be triggered within days.
Ex-Culture Secretary John Whittingdale and ex-minister Mark Francois were among the latest Tories to submit letters of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee. The number submitted was rumoured to be nearing the 48 needed to allow a vote to be triggered.
Mrs May’s de facto deputy David Lidington insisted she would win any such confidence vote. Ms Rudd also called on her colleagues to “think again” about sending letters against the PM, saying her deal was a “practical response to leaving the EU”.
Ms Rudd was a Remain campaigner during the referendum. Her replacement of Brexiteer Ms McVey will do little to ease tensions JON TRICKETT ON AMBER RUDD’S RETURN TO THE CABINET MORE people voted to stay in the EU in Streatham than anywhere else in the UK, a feeling that holds strong today, despite the result of the Brexit vote.
Everyone we spoke to here who voted Remain said they would vote exactly the same way if there was a second referendum.
Retail manager Mark Blanchard, 33, said: “I voted Remain – it was the right thing to do. We are part of Europe and I think it’s better for our economy and social contribution.”
His fear is that many people didn’t understand what they were voting for.
He said: “If you were already among warring Tory MPs. She quit as Home Secretary in April after misleading Parliament over targets for booting out illegal immigrants.
Her rehabilitation comes after a report concluded she had been let down by her officials.
Asked what Mrs May would say to victims of the Windrush scandal over Ms Rudd’s return, the PM’s official spokesman said: “Amber Rudd took responsibility for what happened.
“But you saw in the Alex Allan report that she was not supported as she should have been in her role. The Government has apologised, the Prime Minster and Home Secretary apologised for the Windrush scandal.
“Work is on-going to make sure those people are properly compensated.”
The spokesman said the PM viewed Ms Rudd as “a very experienced Secretary of State who has worked across a number of departments” and was “confident she will do an excellent job”. Earlier Mrs May took calls in a halfhour phone-in on LBC.
One caller told her that arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg would make a better PM. Another said she had “appeased” the EU like Neville Chamberlain in negotiations with Hitler. interested in politics then, yeah, there was information, but for people who aren’t it was probably a grey area.”
After losing the vote, opinions are divided here about the best outcome for the ongoing negotiations.
Inventory clerk Matt
Deacy, 27, voted Remain because he thought it was generally better to be part of the EU, but admits he was ignorant about much of the campaign. Now he feels for Prime Minister Theresa May, who has come up with a workable deal. He said: Barclay and PM “I actually feel really bad for Theresa May. I think just a good fair deal would be good. You can’t please all the people all the time.”
Paul Brown, 47, who’s looking for a job in the NHS, also voted to Remain because he thinks it’s “better when we are one united entity”.
He fears for the future with any Brexit, deal or no deal. He said: “It’s a disaster at the minute. We are going to be stung. We won’t be able to thrive with jobs. I don’t want it to happen.” But WORRY Paul Brown
Appointing a disgraced former minister is a desperate choice by a weak PM