One of the district’s MPs has urged the Government to find better ways to stop children being groomed by paedophile gangs.

Kris Hopkins, Conservative MP for Keighley, spoke out in the wake of the horrific sex abuse convictions in Derby.

Nine men from the East Midlands city were jailed last week for a string of sexual offences against 27 girls.

Mr Hopkins wants the Government to act to try to prevent similar cases.

The issue is particularly relevant in his constituency, following a series of incidents and convictions for ‘child grooming’ during the last decade.

Several men from the town were jailed in 2004 and 2005 after a police inquiry called Operation Parsonage.

Last year, three men – two from Keighley – were jailed for a total of 18 years for sexually abusing and grooming a 14-year-old girl.

Mr Hopkins asked the Leader of House of Commons, Sir George Young, if the Government would make a statement about what it would do to stamp out sex abuse in cases similar to Derby.

He wants to know if there are any “flexibilities” to be put in place to enable victims, social services and police to stop grooming and sexual abuse.

He said: “There have been particular issues, historically in Keighley about men grooming children and I think there are lots of debates about other forms of paedophilia out there but that is of a great concern and causes huge tensions.

“I think in some of the cases, the child doesn’t want to make a complaint which puts the social services and the police in a terrible situation. My challenge to the justice ministry and the Home Secretary is what can we do? What flexibilities can we put in place? “My job is to hear what’s going on and put the question and the challenge in and try to have an informed and considered conversation and debate and put some changes in hopefully which will protect these children.”

Mr Hopkins said he believed the issues were not unique to Keighley and wanted police and social services to be able to ‘speak out’ about the issues.

He said: “The key thing about it is the people who live in Keighley and the constituency it’s their issue and if it affects their child and they’re fearful about the activity of men towards their children then it’s huge. It’s massive.”