The woman who presided over the Rotherham Council that investigated the molestation of children is the same executive who removed three children from their foster parents because they were Ukip voters

The woman who presided over the last five years of failure as the boss of children’s services at Rotherham Council is the same executive who removed three children from their foster parents because they were Ukip voters. 

Joyce Thacker, the £130,000-a-year Strategic Director of Children’s Services at the scandal-hit council, is among the senior managers who are now under pressure to resign following the “excoriating” report into child sexual exploitation in the town. 

Although she is not named as being culpable for the failure to protect 1,400 abused children in the report, as the head of children’s services since 2008 Mrs Thacker is among those whose positions now appear to be under threat. 

Mrs Thacker, who joined the Council as deputy head of children’s services in 2006, is already a controversial figure following her decision two years ago toremove three ethnic minority children from their foster parents because of their affiliation to Ukip. 

After The Telegraph drew attention to the foster parents’ plight, Mrs Thacker refused to back down, saying the children’s “cultural and ethnic needs” did not fit in with the parents’ “strong views”. She said their support for Ukip meant they opposed “multiculturalism”. 

Last year, during an appearance before Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee to give evidence on child grooming in Rotherham she told MPs: “I do not think I would fully accept that we have failed dismally to deal with the issue.” 

When asked why there had been so few people brought to justice for child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, she replied: “Prosecution is the icing on the cake.”