Political correctness must no longer prevent the police from using the ethnicity of suspects to identify grooming gangs, Rishi Sunak will say today.
A government spokesman has said that Asian grooming gangs will no longer be allowed to “evade justice because of cultural sensitivities”, 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 in an attempt to prevent child abusers from falling through the net.
According to The Telegraph:
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.
Grooming will also be made an “aggravated” crime as part of the new measures, meaning those found guilty face longer in jail.
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.”
It comes after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse warned in October that “victims and survivors suggested that professionals feared allegations of racism and that this was prioritised over their safety”.
The inquiry found that despite the scandals of grooming gangs in Rotherham and Rochdale, the problem had not been tackled.
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.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, was director of public prosecutions, during a period when grooming gangs escaped justice in Rotherham. He has admitted that the CPS failed grooming victims, and told the Commons eight years ago that he had concerns when he led the service that there was a reluctance to take grooming gangs to court.
Mr Sunak pledged to tackle grooming gangs during last summer’s Tory leadership contest.
