Councillor stands down as Rother Valley parliamentary candidate following backlash

Coun Dominic Beck, Rotherham Council cabinet member for transport and environment, had been a cabinet member for seven months in 2014, when Prof Alexis Jay published a report into child sexual exploitation in the borough.

The cabinet resigned in order to allow commissioners control of the council.

Coun Beck was one of the cabinet members reappointed in May 2016 to take forward the new governance of the council alongside commissioners.

However, Labour’s decision to select Coun Beck to fight the Rother Valley parliamentary prompted criticism online and from national news outlets.

Coun Beck has since announced his decision to drop out of the race.

He said: “It has been the honour of my life to be selected by Labour members in Rother Valley to stand for parliament.

“However, I have decided to stand down as candidate. I understand press coverage and concern about the events of the past make it more difficult for me to lead that campaign.

“I would never wish to do anything that causes further upset to Rotherham’s CSE survivors and it was never my intention to cause them distress. I am saddened this is what has happened.

“I was aged 19 when I was elected to the council. Throughout almost all of the period the Jay report investigated, I was growing up and attending school while other children my age were enduring the most horrific abuse.

“Within 18 months of my election, I supported the commissioning of the Jay report to find out what had gone wrong, so we could ensure such awful failings never happened again.

“I would like to thank all the people who have supported me and put their faith in me over the last few weeks.

“My priority has always been to do the best for people in the Rother Valley and it is essential we return a Labour MP at the next election.

“Labour’s candidate will have my full support to win back the seat for Labour at the next general election.”

The seat is currently held by Conservative Alexander Stafford, who was elected in 2019 with a 6,318 majority after Labour’s Sir Kevin Barron, who had held the seat for more than 35 years, stood down.