“Political correctness” has prevented authorities from tackling British Pakistani grooming gangs abusing vulnerable white English girls, the home secretary has said.
Suella Braverman said that the “systematic and institutional failure to safeguard the welfare of children when it comes to sexual abuse” is one of the biggest scandals in British history.
“What’s clear is that what we’ve seen is a practice whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks,” she told the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme on Sky News.
“It’s now down to the authorities to track these perpetrators down without fear or favour relentlessly and bring them to justice.
“We’ve seen institutions and state agencies, whether it’s social workers, teachers, the police, turn a blind eye to these signs of abuse out of political correctness, out of fear of being called racists, out of fear of being called bigoted.”
Braverman alluded to high-profile cases including in Rotherham and Rochdale, and said there is a “predominance of certain ethnic groups—and I say British Pakistani males—who hold cultural values totally at odds with British values, who see women in a demeaned and illegitimate way and pursue an outdated and frankly heinous approach in terms of the way they behave.”
‘Burning Sense of Injustice’
The home secretary made the comments after she announced plans for a consultation on introducing a mandatory duty on professionals working with children to report concerns about sexual abuse.It came after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse last year described sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake.”
The seven-year inquiry into institutional failings in England and Wales concluded that people in positions of trust should be compelled by law to report child sexual abuse.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Braverman said: “Had this duty been in place already, countless children would have been better protected against grooming gangs and against sexual abusers more widely. That is why I have committed to introduce mandatory reporting across the whole of England.”
She added: “Some crimes, if left unpunished, create such a burning sense of injustice among the public that they singe the fabric of our social contract.
“When the most vulnerable people cannot rely on protection from those entrusted to safeguard them, cannot rely on the police to defend them, and cannot rely on the courts to deliver them justice, then the legitimacy of our democratic institutions is called into question.
Silence Enables Abuse
Braverman told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that while the fault lay with the perpetrators for “carrying or heinous and vile acts of depravity,” there was also “a social ignorance” among authorities.She said: “Silence has enabled this abuse. We need to ensure a duty on those professionals that they can’t get away with inaction.”
She accused Labour politicians of failing to take action because of their reluctance to call out specific ethnic minorities.
The home secretary said: “Some councillors, senior politicians, in Labour-run areas over a period of years absolutely failed to take action because of cultural sensitivities, not wanting to come across as racist, not wanting to call out people along ethnic lines.
‘Dog Whistle’
But Labour politicians have pushed back against the home secretaries’ accusations.West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin told the BBC that the “blame game” was not helpful and that “some of the suggestions she was making are already in train.”
She said Braverman’s comment “feels very dog whistle” and “doesn’t deal with what is happening on the ground.”
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, said the government is not taking child abuse seriously.
She told Sky News: “I think the home secretary needs to get real. We’re failing young people in this country—online, on our streets, and in their homes—because the government is just simply not taking it seriously.”
Nandy said mandatory reporting of any signs or suspicions of abuse was being called for 20 years ago, adding: “Here we are after 13 years of Tory government, and finally the home secretary has just woken up and said let’s do something about it. And all we’ve got is a consultation. That is not the mark of a serious government.
“They must honestly think that we are fools if they think that we’re going to fall for this as a sign that the government is taking seriously what is a huge scandal and an absolute disgrace for some of the most vulnerable young people in this country.”
