Ethnicity of grooming gangs cannot be ignored, police told

From the Telegraph

Political correctness must no longer prevent the police from using the ethnicity of suspects to identify grooming gangs, Rishi Sunak said on Monday.

Asian grooming gangs will no longer be allowed to “evade justice because of cultural sensitivities”, a government spokesman said ahead of the unveiling of a package of measures designed to crack down on organised networks of abusers.

The Prime Minister will order police forces to improve the recording and analysis of ethnicity data – including sharing information throughout the country – in an attempt to prevent perpetrators of abuse from falling through the net.

Ministers are understood to be concerned that, currently, gangs are not being identified because police are afraid of drawing links between suspects of the same ethnicity for fear of being accused of racism or bigotry.

Police have been required to collect data on the ethnicity of those in child grooming gangs since last April, but the Government is concerned that the information is not being used effectively enough to identify patterns and lead investigators to other perpetrators

Mr Sunak will launch a new Grooming Gangs Taskforce on Monday morning and will visit survivors of abuse in Leeds and Greater Manchester.

He said ahead of the visit: “The safety of women and girls is paramount. For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women. We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs.”

Mr Sunak will launch a new Grooming Gangs Taskforce on Monday morning and will visit survivors of abuse in Leeds and Greater Manchester.

He said ahead of the visit: “The safety of women and girls is paramount. For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women. We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs.”

However, on Sunday, Labour accused the Government of singling out British Pakistanis and engaging in “dog whistle politics”.

Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, accused Labour councillors of failing to act against child sexual abuse by gangs of British Pakistani men because of fears of being called racist. Labour run councils, often like Rotherham,  Rochdale, Bradford (21/22)  and Oldham (2019) with a Muslim mayor, rely on Islamic votes for power. Especially with the postal vote system; buy one get 10 free. The honourable exceptions are retired  labour MP Ann Cryer and Sarah Champion, who had to withdraw from the labour shadow cabinet for pointing out the same facts

What’s more – The Prime Minister went on GB News to discuss this. 

‘For too long we haven’t focused on this issue… We all know the reason people don’t focus on it. It’s because of political correctness’

A government spokesman said: “This will also include police-recorded ethnicity data to make sure suspects cannot evade justice because of cultural sensitivities.”

The analysts will also ensure data is shared across regions. A pilot scheme found that the number of people identified rose from five to 39 using the new techniques.

Legislation will be introduced to make being the leader of a grooming gang or being involved in one a statutory aggravating factor during sentencing.