Read our open letter — signed by Olivia Colman, David Morrissey, Ellie Goulding and more

Thank you, again, for your support.

This campaign continues to grow in both size and momentum. 100,000+ signatures in just 12 days. Cross-party political support. A growing team of formidable campaigners.

And this week we are also delivering an open letter to Sir Keir Starmer.

Celebrities including Olivia Colman, David Morissey, Carrie Johnson, Ellie Goulding and Nicola Thorp have joined with The Gazette and Blackpool MP Chris Webb in writing to the Prime Minister calling for a national public inquiry into the 'catastrophic failure' to protect murdered baby Preston Davey.

The letter is also signed by campaigner Paula Hudgell, adoptive mother of Tony Hudgell, who had both legs amputated after abuse by his birth parents as a baby, as well as high profile campaigner Hetti Barkwood-Nanton, Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge and Laura Trott MP, Shadow Education Secretary.

You can read the letter in full below, and please keep sharing - every signature matters!

Vanessa Sims
Editor, Blackpool Gazette and Lancashire Post

The Letter:

Dear Prime Minister,

Preston Davey was a little boy who should be alive today.

He should be growing up surrounded by the love and security every child deserves. Instead, his life was cut brutally short after what appears to have been a catastrophic failure by the very systems that exist to protect vulnerable children. Most heartbreaking of all is the suggestion that there were multiple opportunities to recognise the danger he was in and intervene before it was too late.

We are writing to urge you to establish a full, statutory national public inquiry into Preston's death and the wider safeguarding failures it may have exposed across the country.

Like so many people across the country, we have been horrified by what has emerged about Preston's short life and tragic death.

We cannot allow Preston's death to become another tragedy followed by expressions of regret, promises that lessons will be learned and little meaningful change. Without a thorough examination of what happened, there can be no confidence that the necessary lessons will be learned.

A statutory national public inquiry should establish:

* What warning signs were identified and by whom.
* Whether concerns were appropriately recorded, shared and acted upon.
* Whether communication between agencies was adequate and effective.
* Whether existing safeguarding procedures were followed.
* Whether systemic failures contributed to missed opportunities to protect Preston.
* Whether those failings are being replicated elsewhere in the country.
* What reforms are required to prevent similar tragedies in the future, not just in Oldham but across the country.

This is not about blame for its own sake. It is about accountability and ensuring that vulnerable children are better protected in future.

Your career has been defined by a commitment to justice and protecting the vulnerable. Before entering politics, you spent decades working within the justice system, including as Director of Public Prosecutions.

At a moment when attention is understandably focused on political events, we hope you will seize the opportunity to make a lasting difference by committing to a full, statutory national public inquiry into Preston's death and the safeguarding failures it exposed.

This is not an issue that can wait. Every day without answers is another day in which lessons that could protect vulnerable children remain unlearned.

Only a statutory national public inquiry has the powers necessary to compel witnesses, obtain all relevant evidence and provide the public with confidence that the full truth has been uncovered.

Preston's death cannot be viewed as an isolated tragedy. Across our country, vulnerable children continue to suffer abuse, neglect and cruelty behind closed doors. Too often, warning signs are missed, concerns are not joined together and opportunities to intervene are lost.

The central question is whether the failings exposed by Preston's death are unique to this case or are symptoms of wider weaknesses in our safeguarding system.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review will examine what happened to Preston. A statutory national public inquiry is needed to determine whether those failings exist elsewhere and what national reforms are required to ensure no other child is failed in the same way.

We would also welcome clarification as to what immediate safeguarding measures have been put in place to protect other children in Oldham while the review is under way. To date, it has not been made publicly clear what additional scrutiny, safeguarding checks or oversight have been introduced across local services. Given the serious concerns raised by Preston's case, greater transparency is essential to protect children and restore public confidence.

These concerns reinforce the need for a wider national examination. Any safeguarding weaknesses identified in Preston's case should now be urgently examined across the country to ensure other vulnerable children are not being placed at similar risk.

We must use this horrific crime as a defining moment—one that compels us to confront uncomfortable truths and make lasting changes to the systems designed to protect children.

For Preston, and for every vulnerable child who depends upon us to keep them safe, we must do better.

Yours sincerely,

Paula Hudgell OBE
Ellie Goulding MBE
Carrie Johnson
Olivia Colman CBE
Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE
Chris Webb MP
Vanessa Sims (Editor of Blackpool Gazette)
Nicola Thorp
David Morrissey
Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge
Laura Trott MP (Shadow Education Secretary)