Andy Burnham faces a vote of no confidence in his failed leadership of Greater Manchester Police, after Oldham’s Liberal Democrat group put forward a motion challenging his management of the force.

Earlier this month, the Met police were issued with a damning report which found systemic racism and misogyny, and that hundreds of officers in the Met should be kicked out of the force. A freedom of information request from Oldham Liberal Democrats to GMP revealed that the equivalent information was not available from GMP, but that there were a minimum of 1,400 cases from 2017.

In the review of historic child sex exploitation in Oldham, GMP refused to sign a data processing agreement to let the review team have access to information on nine of the 11 cases.

Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who represents Saddleworth West and Lees, said: “If GMP cannot even provide the information on the same issues that the Met police has been condemned for, that says a lot about the way they are being run from the top.

“While GMP has emerged from special measures – meaning it is now at the bare minimum accepted level – there is a record of mismanagement at the highest level that can only be placed at the door of Andy Burnham and Bev Hughes.”

GMP was in special measures for nearly two years. It was warned about its failure to support victims of domestic abuse in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. During that time, there have been three chief constables, and the entire senior leadership of the force has been replaced, with the exception of Andy Burnham and his deputy Bev Hughes.

Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “People in Oldham are sick and tired of their not being enough officers in their neighbourhood. GMP do not provide local data on crimes – and at the Police Accountability Meeting last week confirmed that they have no intention of doing so. People don’t know what the police are doing in their neighbourhood – they only know that they can’t see officers there.”

The Liberal Democrat group have also slammed “Burnham’s broken promises” on neighbourhood policing. Speaking in support of the motion, fellow Saddleworth West and Lees councillor, Mark Kenyon said, “Mayor Burnham trumpeted a return to Neighbourhood Policing, bobbies on the beat of every ward in Greater Manchester back in 2020. Oldham doesn’t have that. Neighbourhood officers are regularly redeployed to other parts of the service, meaning neighbourhood policing is often massively reduced or just non-existent.”

The Liberal Democrat motion will be voted on by Oldham Council on Wednesday 2nd November.

Liberal Democrat Group Motion (02/11/22)

No Confidence in Andy Burnham’s & Beverley Hughes’ management of Greater Manchester Police

This Council notes that:

1. There have been no crime figures published for Oldham from July 2019 onwards. Residents are unable to download and compare crime, stop, and search, and outcome statistics in their local areas unlike, for example, in London.
2. Newsam & Ridgway’s review into CSE in Oldham, commissioned by Andy Burnham, notes the following (p40/2.17): the review started in January 2020 yet it took until November 2021 to agree a data processing agreement with GMP (for comparison, a complete data processing agreement with Oldham Council was agreed in April 2020). This data processing agreement with GMP only covered two of the 11 cases investigated – Shabir Ahmed and ‘Sophie’. Newsam and Ridgway further note that the lack of an agreement affected the quality of assurance that they could give about the quality of the conduct of GMP.
3. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS) reported that GMP was failing victims of domestic abuse in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. GMP was placed into special measures in December 2020
4. From 2016, all chief officers at GMP have been replaced. The only two senior posts that have remained unchanged throughout this entire period are the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice, and Fire – Andy Burnham and, his appointee, Baroness Beverley Hughes.
5. GMP’s failings reflect a national trend of defunding of Police by this Conservative government. Police are solving just 7% of recorded crimes.
6. The highest ever number of rape cases in the UK was recorded in 2022 – 70,330, of which just 2,223 cases resulted in charges being brought. An estimated four out of five rape cases are not reported. Rape investigations currently take an average of 465 days from being reported to someone being charged.
7. There is a backlog of nearly 59,000 cases at the crown court, and over 358,000 cases to the magistrate’s court. The backlog increased by 23% in the year prior to the COVID pandemic and has increased further since.

This Council believes that:

Victims of crime in the borough of Oldham, and across Greater Manchester, are being failed. Andy Burnham has failed and the Conservative government’s approach to policing and criminal justice has failed.

This Council resolves to:

Direct the Chief Executive to write to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester to inform them of Council’s lack of confidence in their ability to effectively manage GMP.

HMIC spokesperson quoted
Greater Manchester police to be placed in special measures | Greater Manchester | The Guardian