RACE, colour and creed matter now, always have and always will.

They inform us of who we are and how we view the world but Members of Parliament should be seen to be objective and to represent all of their constituents equally, so they will be confident in raising concerns just as they would with councillors, the police and council officials.

With trust in politicians at an all-time low, the Rotherham grooming scandal is another blow. The police, children’s services and the council leadership all failed and were responsible for stopping investigations reporting the truth and silencing whistle blowers.

There were 1,400 girls raped from 1997 to 2010 and no one has been held to account. South Yorkshire PCC, Shaun Wright, was in charge of Children’s Services at the time and has only thought it necessary to resign from the Labour Party but not from his £85,000 job.

Rochdale, Oxford and Oldham have all seen similar scandals where Muslim men, largely of Pakistani descent, have groomed girls for sex.

The vast majority of Muslims oppose this behaviour as much as anyone else but we do have to be clear about the nature of what has happened.

Another area where we need to be able to trust the judgement of our local MPs is how we react to the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.

More than 500 men from Britain have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight for ISIS/Islamic State. Some of those men are perpetrating the atrocities against the Yazidis, Christians and Muslims – including crucifixion, stoning and beheading – and one day many will return to Britain.

With increasing numbers of anti-Semitic attacks across Western Europe we need our politicians to speak clearly and without bias.

Unfortunately, a former Labour MP has declared Bradford an Israeli-free zone and another left-wing MP said that he would indiscriminately fire rockets at Israel.

In both of the areas I have highlighted, I have concerns about the one of our Bolton MPs, Yasmin Qureshi.

Following the Rochdale grooming scandal, Conservative MP Kris Hopkins highlighted the nature of the crime and Ms Qureshi said that it was risking “pandering to the whims of the BNP”.

Earlier this year Ms Qureshi was forced to apologise for comparing the situation in Gaza with the Holocaust and, more recently, she has suggested a comparison between those going to fight for the Israeli Army and ISIS Jihadists.

As the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Bolton West, I regularly discuss constituents’ concerns about immigration, the scandal of the grooming gangs and the return of terrorists from the Middle East.

I hope that I can continue to have open and balanced conversations with constituents and so help rebuild the trust we so badly need.

Chris Green, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton West