The newly-appointed Chair of the Children's Services Scrutiny Panel is seen dismissing concerns over grooming gangs in her local constituency as "all lies" in a recently resurfaced video.
The live feed from 2022 shows Liam Billington, a Conservative councillor for Stalybridge South and Shadow First Deputy for Finance and Growth at Tameside Council, presenting statistics about grooming gangs to the council leaders.
He says the police demanded that he attend the meeting with the council after claiming that figures presented to the council in 2020 show that around 120 children were falling victim to child sexual exploitation in the borough every year.
He told councillors: “The figures I have quoted are from a Tameside Council presentation. Some of the members were there.
“It states on slide three, which I have already provided to the police, that in excess of 30 cases of child sexual exploitation take place in Tameside every quarter.
“That means 120 children each year are victims.”
In Tameside, when I challenged CSE figures, the live webcast was cut. I was also asked to attend the police station off the back of an anonymous complaint because my “statements could be distressing for the victims”. I’ll share the exchange of emails and evidence of a cover up. pic.twitter.com/iMr0equ3JG
— Cllr. Liam Billington (@liambillington) January 2, 2025
As he quotes the statistics back to them, the then Labour leader of Tameside Council Brenda Warrington interjects, saying: "Absolute rubbish. It's all lies!"
Two years later, she was appointed the Chair of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel, which defines its remit as having a "responsibility to consider all matters related to Children’s Social Care and Education". A position she still holds.
Billington recently spoke to GB News' Martin Daubney about the tense council meeting.
“You find yourself on the receiving end of a police summary”, Daubney stated, which Billington confirmed.
The Conservative councellor continued: “I asked ‘why isn’t anyone talking about Tameside? The figures are there’.
“By doing that tweet, the police were angered who said I should go and visit them at the station, for telling the truth.
“They said they were acting off an anonymous complaint, to this day I have no idea where that came from. It felt like the police were trying to intimidate.”
Billington accused the council of trying to “destroy his reputation” by dismissing his concerns.
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Councillor Billington accused the council of trying to 'destroy his reputation' by dismissing his concerns.
GB NewsWhen approached by GB news, a Tameside Council spokesperson said: “Cllr Billington has incorrectly extrapolated the data by multiplying an average figure from 2022 of children at risk during one quarter to calculate an annual figure which is incorrect due to the same children being involved with the service during all of those quarters.
“Keeping children and young people safe is our highest priority. We work in partnership with the police and health leaders through the Tameside Safeguarding Children Partnership to ensure that young people get the help and protection they need.
“We are also fully cooperating with Greater Manchester’s Independent Sexual Exploitation Review to assess improvements made by Greater Manchester Police and all the Greater Manchester Councils and the effectiveness of multi-agency responses to CSE.
“Our safeguarding work around CSE was one of the areas highlighted as good by Ofsted, and the Children’s Commissioner described our contextual safeguarding service as a ‘beacon of good practice’ and as being ‘built on the foundations of stability, effective leadership and management, and a clear operating model’.”
GB News has also approached Councillor Warrington for comment.
