British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday vowed to do whatever it takes as he condemned the political correctness which has prevented action against ‘vile’ criminals behind the sexual abuse of children and young women and launched a new taskforce to go after such gangs.
He said a new police task force will ‘root out’ grooming gangs and has said the plans were ‘welcomed’ by the public.
Rishi Sunak’s announcement comes a day after his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said that the perpetrators of such crimes are ‘groups of men, almost all British Pakistanis’.
Under the measures, specialists supported by the National Crime Agency will assist local police with investigations into such criminal groups – including, controversially, by providing forces with data on ethnicity.
The prime minister has said he won’t allow ‘cultural sensitivity’ and ‘political correctness’ to get in the way of the new initiative.
Mr Sunak told Sky News Monday: ‘The actions that we’re announcing today are right, they’ve been welcomed by people.
‘They will make a big difference in helping us rooting out grooming gangs.’
His comments follow after Suella Braverman attracted widespread censure for her views about a supposed over-representation of British Asian offenders among perpetrators of child sexual abuse, something highly contested among researchers and academics.
Asked about the Home Secretary’s recent statements by Sky News, Mr Sunak said: ‘With the specific issue of grooming gangs we’ve had several independent inquiries look at the incidents here in Rochdale and in Rotherham and in Telford.
‘What’s clear is that when victims and other whistleblowers came forward, their claims were often ignored by social workers, local politicians, even the police.
‘The reason they were ignored was due to cultural sensitivity and political correctness. That’s not right. These crimes are horrific.’
Ms Braverman had written in an article for the Mail on Sunday that in most grooming-gang cases, ‘the perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values.’
Amid outcry over her use of ‘dog whistle’ rhetoric, Ms Braverman later doubled down on her position, adding in an interview with Sky News that perpetrators of this nature regard women ‘in a demeaning and illegitimate way’ and behave in a manner that is ‘outdated and frankly heinous.’
These claims are actively contradicted by a report from Ms Braverman’s own department.
The new Grooming Gangs Taskforce launched by the British Indian leader will involve specialist officers parachuted in to assist police forces with live child sexual exploitation and grooming investigations for tougher action against those who groom children for sexual abuse.
