A ROTHERHAM Labour councillor who came to national attention after helping to expose child grooming, has resigned from the Labour Party following what she describes as ‘ceaseless harassment and intimidation’.
Mrs Senior, who had previously worked at Rotherham’s Risky Business youth service, is well-known for her brave efforts to tackle child abuse and for supplying information to The Times for a series of stories exposing failures by the authorities to effectively tackle grooming gangs in the town.
Working for over a decade to expose the issue of child sexual exploitation within Rotherham , Senior revealed the horrific truth for a series of articles in The Times about the council and police force’s attempts to cover up the abuse.
The articles subsequently triggered a public inquiry, an inspection of the council, the replacement of councillors by government-appointed commissioners, and several criminal inquiries.
Senior, who was awarded an MBE, then joined the Labour Party yet quickly came under attack over her efforts to expose the truth about child abuse in the area that took place under a Labour council – a council she proved helped cover-up said abuse to begin with.
“Today I resigned from the Labour Party” Cllr Senior said in her resignation statement. “Since shortly after my election as a Labour councillor in May 2016, I have been the subject of ceaseless harassment and intimidation. There has been a systematic and longstanding campaign to undermine me as a person, as a Labour Councillor and as a long-standing member and supporter of the Labour party.
“Since August 2016, if not before, I have been the target of malicious and vexatious investigations and data breaches which have compromised my personal security and those of my family and have made us feel very unsafe.
“During this period of time I have repeatedly asked but received no support from the Leader of the Council and this has led me to feel that I have no alternative but to resign from the Labour Party.
I can confirm that I will continue as a Councillor, to represent the good people of Rotherham who put their faith in me in 2016, until the local elections for a new council.”
