Home Secretary Suella Braverman has unveiled new plans to bring an end to child sexual abuse, after a number of reports into grooming gangs exploiting young girls. Mrs Braverman didn’t shy away from highlighting British Pakistani perpetrators, saying political correctness has prevented those in authority from acting.
The government today announced plans for a wide-ranging consultation on dealing with the issue, though is launching an immediate focus on mandatory reporting.
The Home Office believes the professionals who had duties of care towards young girls turn a “blind eye” towards abuse “out of political correctness, out of a fear of being called racist, out of fear of being called bigoted”.
Mrs Braverman added that this fear has resulted in “thousands of children” having their “childhoods robbed and devastated”, with “many of the perpetrators still running wild”.
Suella Braverman described these professionals – including those in state agencies – refusing to take action as “outrageous”.
New rules would mean any professions working on child safeguarding would have to report and take action when they come into possession of information that may raise concerns about the safety of young people.
Sky presenter Sophy Ridge confronted the Home Secretary with a 2020 report from her department, which concluded that grooming gangs “are most commonly white” and which noted that despite some “high profile cases… links between ethnicity and this form of offending could not be proven”.
However the Home Secretary cited the shocking 2014 report into child grooming in Rotherham, and the subsequent 2015 report by Louise Casey, both of which were “unflinching in their assessment of the problem” of ethnic grooming gangs.
“There have been several reports since about the 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cultural values totally at odds with British values, who see women in a demeaned and illegitimate way and who pursue an outdated and frankly heinous approach in terms of the way they behave.
“We’ve got to stamp that out with criminal law and proper safeguarding and we’re only going to do that if as a society we face up to the facts and truth of what’s going on.”
READ MORE: ‘Politically correct policing led to rise of grooming gangs’
Suella Braverman said it is clear there is a practice “whereby vulnerable English girls”, sometimes in care or facing challenging life circumstances”, are being “pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men, who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks”.
“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 racist, out of fear of being called bigoted.
“As a result, thousands of children have had their childhoods robbed and devastated and there are many of the perpetrators still running wild, behaving in this way, and it’s now down to the authorities to track these perpetrators down without fear or favour relentlessly and bring them to justice.
An independent review into child sexual exploitation last year described sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.
£600,000 of funding for the NSPCC whistleblowing helpline has also been announced by the Home Office this morning.
