The Church of England must face its fear and failings over the national grooming gangs scandal according to the Bishop of Blackburn, Philip North, who said that the church’s agenda “Is usually set by certain sections of the media, Parliament and the Academy”.

Addressing the report by Baroness Casey and the government’s U-turn over a statutory inquiry, he wrote: “Our calling as the national church is to give a voice to the economically deprived and socially marginalised.”

But Philip North, who has worked in inner city and outer estates ministry in Sunderland, Hartlepool and Kings Cross before he became a bishop, said he was now doing some “serious reflection about my fear-driven silence”.

He added, “All too often, we are either silent or actively at odds with the issues that most trouble working class neighbourhoods: not just grooming gangs but the impact of immigration on community life, benefits dependency, the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, energy costs and so on.

“Being attentive to the needs of our working class communities does not mean that we have to agree with them all. It does, however, mean ensuring that voices that are often silenced are given proper attention in public dialogue and debate. If that does not happen, we will be playing our part in creating a political vacuum that the far right will be all too happy to fill.”

He questioned his own motivations as well as that of other church leaders, acknowledging that many clergy and church leaders knew about what was happening in their neighbourhoods and parishes.

He wrote: “There must be hundreds of other church leaders like me who had heard rumours, stories and concerns yet said nothing.

Read it all in the Church of England Newspaper