But Mr Mahmood insisted: “There has been a systemic failure of management and Mr Howell and Coun Lawrence haven’t dealt with this.

“They are real failures. They should bear some responsibility for this.

“No one is blaming the people at the coal face, the social workers. Twenty per cent of them are off sick because management hasn’t supported them at all.

“Mr Howell and Coun Lawrence should take a deeper look at what they have done. They should consider their position. They should consider whether they are the right people for the job.”

The MP Khalid also today urged the government to take direct control of children’s social services in Birmingham.

He wants civil servants to replace council officials, who he claimed had shown they were not capable of protecting thousands of children at risk of sexual and physical abuse.

He was speaking after a scrutiny inquiry headed by veteran Tory councillor Len Clark exposed poor management, a lack of accurate information about children in care and the use of “unqualified staff” to screen referrals of young people at risk of harm.

Mr Mahmood was also involved in a “secrecy” row, after Council House officials banned him from attending a press briefing and question and answer session into Coun Clark’s report.

They insisted the meeting was only open to journalists, and that Mr Mahmood could join other MPs for a separate meeting at a later date.

An angry Mr Mahmood said: “What are they afraid of? What have they got to hide?

“I asked for a copy of this report on a confidential basis, and as an MP I would, of course, have respected any embargo and not revealed the contents before yesterday’s briefing. But I was told I could not have the report.”

Among the children known to social services who have died are:

• Baby Jordan McCann, who died after being violently shaken by her mother’s boyfriend, and Brandon Davies, who died after drinking his parents’ methadone.

• Schoolgirl Toni-Anne Byfield, shot after social workers agreed she could visit her drug-dealer father – a man who, it later transpired. was not her father at all.

• Jordan Reid, drowned by his mother Mirelene Stewart, of Washwood Heath, in Saundersfoot, Wales, a week short of his second birthday.

• Seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, of Handsworth, who allegedly starved to death after being removed from school by her mother and kept at home. Her mother and step-father are awaiting trial for her murder.