ROTHERHAM Council’s entire cabinet resigned yesterday and will be replaced by government commissioners in the wake of a damning report into child sexual exploitation.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced the measures to replace the council’s “wholly dysfunctional” political leadership following Louise Casey’s inspection report.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it would extend its ongoing investigation into the exploitation in Rotherham in the light of the findings.

“The council’s culture is unhealthy. Bullying, sexism, suppression and misplaced ‘political correctness’ have cemented its failures,” said Ms Casey.

“The council is currently incapable of tackling its weaknesses, without a sustained intervention.”

Ms Casey’s probe followed the Jay Report last year which discovered that between 1997 and 2013 more than 1,400 children had been subjected to rape, violence and trafficking by gangs of mainly Asian men in the South Yorkshire town.

She said the council was in complete denial about what had happened and many people within it, as well as in the police, even continued to dispute the findings of the Jay Report.

Her report highlighted a culture of covering up the truth, silencing whistleblowers and paying off staff rather than dealing with difficult issues.

The Jay report, published in August last year, has already provoked two investigations by Commons committees and a range of other inquiries.

High-profile figures resigned in its wake, including South Yorkshire’s police commissioner Shaun Wright

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