Reform UK's Ben Habib has called for a dedicated police unit with powers to arrest and detain those who failed to act on grooming gangs across Britain's institutions.
Speaking to GB News, Habib said the unit should target individuals "who turned a blind eye to this activity in their own police forces, in social services, in councils and so on, and to arrest them and to hold them to account".
Habib explained: "She talked about forward-looking laws where they would make it an aggravated crime.
"If they were groomed, they would make it illegal to be complicit in this activity, that it's already illegal to be complicit in the gang rape of little girls.
Ben Habib called on a "dedicated unit of police"
GB News
"It's already illegal, I would go even further than the Conservative Party, I would say we don't need an inquiry into this.
"What we want is a dedicated unit of the police to have powers of arrest and detention, to weed out those who turned a blind eye to this activity in their own police forces, in social services, in councils and so on. To arrest them and to hold them to account.
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"The other thing I want is for the Government to admit, we're having all this debate about the revelation of ethnicities because multiculturalism in this country is not working.
"If we had a unified, integrated culture and we hadn't had mass immigration in the way that we've had, we wouldn't be having debates about ethnic the ethnicity of people who are committing crimes in this country.
"That's the second thing. The third thing is we need to reverse and abolish the legislative and regulatory framework of diversity, equity and inclusion. It is damaging to our criminal justice system.
"It's damaging to our country economically, is damaging to our country. From a security perspective, it has to go. Unless politicians recognize that you do not get a functioning society through progressive discrimination, we will never get the United Kingdom back to a place where actually justice will be applied blindly.
Yvette Cooper made a statement in the Commons
GB News
"So yes, she made some forward-looking declarations about how things may be tackled in the future, but she won't have the courage to look at what's happened in the past because it will reveal multiple failings of 27 years of bad Government."
His comments came as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced new measures on child sexual exploitation in the Commons today.
Cooper has announced that professionals working with children will face criminal sanctions if they fail to report child sexual abuse claims.
The measure will be included in the crime and policing bill, expected to be introduced to Parliament this spring.
Habib said the unit should target individuals "who turned a blind eye to this activity"
GB News
"We will make it mandatory to report abuse, and we will put the measures in the crime and policing bill that will be put before parliament this spring, making it an offence with professional and criminal sanctions to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse," Cooper told MPs.
The announcement follows Labour's rejection of demands from Elon Musk and Kemi Badenoch for a new investigation into paedophile gangs.
A Government spokesman emphasised that protecting vulnerable children is "paramount" and highlighted ongoing work to implement recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
