He told The Telegraph that two Labour MPs, Mr. Lloyd and Jim Dobbin, who represents the nearby seat of Heywood and Middleton, advised him not to associate the incident with the race of the offenders.
In a 2017 letter to Prof. Alexis Jay, the head of an earlier investigation into child sexual abuse, he explained his worries.
He wrote: “It is public knowledge that Tony Lloyd, the current Member of Parliament for Rochdale and a former Manchester Central representative, attempted to distance.
The grooming crisis from the Asian Muslim community inside Parliament. Additionally, he told me in private that the connections shouldn’t be underlined.
“When Tony was appointed Greater Manchester police commissioner, I publicly questioned Tony’s performance and kept bringing up the poor.
