Bev Turner blames ‘lack of assimilation to British life’ for deadly trend: ‘Difficult truth’

New data suggests acid attacks and other crimes involving corrosive substances soared by 75 per cent last year, but just eight per cent of offenders ended up in court.

“This is awful, I hate this story, it really worries me”, she said.

“This is a failure of people coming here from other countries. Cultures in which there is a long tradition of disfiguring women who might be unfaithful.

“This is people coming here and then not realising that we don’t do that.”

Former Labour adviser Scarlett Mccgwire said the issue cannot be solely attributed to people coming from abroad, arguing there is a “cultural issue”.

“As far as violence against women goes, it is what men do to women”, she added.

Bev argued that while it is “about women”, she said acid attacks are something that we “did not see routinely” in Britain until immigration levels soared.

“I know that’s a difficult truth”, she added.

“It’s a cultural lack of assimilation into a British way of life.”

The figures were obtained through freedom of information requests to police forces in the UK, which show 1,244 offences were recorded in 2023, up from 710 the previous year.

Of those, more than a third (36 per cent) involved physical attacks, while almost two thirds (64 per cent), involved threats of attacks, carrying corrosive substances or other serious crimes such involving acids or alkalis.

Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) conducted the research and believe the scale of the problem is likely to be much worse.

They claimed Police Scotland did not provide data and such crimes are often not reported by victims.

"Our new data shows that acid violence is an escalating problem in our country, with women increasingly at risk," said the charity's executive director, Jaf Shah.

"With a new government soon in place, we are asking our leaders to take urgent action and stop these atrocious crimes, which leave victims forever scarred."