Barrister: I asked Home Office ‘do you still want me?’ on grooming inquiries

Since then, little detail has arisen about the location of the inquiries, while the barrister, who was initially tasked with helping develop them, revealed he asked a Home Office official "do you still want me?", after his role appeared to be watered down.

Responding to this Sarah Champion, the Rotherham MP, told The Yorkshire Post: “It’s concerning that 10 weeks on from the Home Secretary’s announcement, we still don’t have clarity on the basic details of how these locally-led inquiries will work.”

Ms Champion has been one of the main campaigners around child sexual exploitation since discovering the horrific abuse going on in her constituency.

Alongside Tom Watson and Zac Goldsmith, she was one of the MPs which pushed for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

Speaking about the future local audits, the Rotherham MP added: “Above all else, they must be victim-centred, and I will continue to push the Government for this to be at the core of the proposed approach.”

It comes as Tom Crowther KC, who led the investigation into child sexual exploitation in Telford, told the Home Affairs Committee this week that he has had minimal engagement with the Government, since it was announced that he would develop a legal framework and work with the five local areas.

On January 16, Ms Cooper told the House of Commons that Mr Crother “has agreed to work with the Government to develop a new framework for victim-centred, locally led inquiries where they are needed”.

She added: “As a first step, he will work with Oldham council and up to four other pilot areas.”

However, after not hearing anything for weeks, in February the barrister asked a Home Office official: “Do you still want me?”

He was later told that ministers and their advisers would develop the legal framework, instead of him.

When asked by the committee on Tuesday how this was progressing, he said: “I don’t know.”

He was due to meet with the Home Office yesterday, which a source had described was a “routine” engagement.

At the Committee, Mr Crowther was questioned by Robbie Moore, who has repeatedly called for an inquiry covering the Bradford district.

The Keighley and Ilkley MP has claimed solicitors believe that the scale of child abuse could in the area could “dwarf” that uncovered in Rotherham, where the Jay Report found 1,400 children were sexually abused between 1997 and 2013.

The local safeguarding partnership has ruled it out, saying it would “cost a huge amount of money” and the issue of grooming gangs needs to be assessed at a national level.

Mr Crowther said: “If there is sufficient local concern then local authorities should be thinking about having an inquiry, whether it be like the inquiry I conducted in Telford or something like the IICSA truth project.”

On the discussion around the merits of a national inquiry, he added: “My view firmly is that for local answers, local inquiries are the solution.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The Government is committed to doing everything it can to tackle the horrific crime of child sexual abuse.

“We will be setting out our progress, including with the IICSA recommendations, to parliament next week.

"We are working with local areas, including Telford, to draw-up a national framework to support further local inquiries and investigations backed by a £5m fund to help strengthen local responses to child sexual exploitation.

"Baroness Casey has also made significant progress on her rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based abuse in recent months and will present findings to Ministers in due course.”