Wes Streeting accused of trying to 'silence the debate' on grooming gangs by 'playing the race card'
Nigel Farage hails Charlie Peters GB News reporter for shining a light on grooming gangs
GB News
Wes Streeting has been accused of “playing the race card” to try and silence the debate on grooming gangs.
The Health Secretary cautioned that vilifying ethic groups for the grooming gang scandal could lead to anti-Muslim violence, such as the 2019 mosque attacks in New Zealand.
More than 50 people were killed and 89 injured when a far-right extremist shot at worshippers in Christchurch with a gun that said “For Rotherham,” apparently referencing the sex abuse of children carried out by predominantly Pakistani-British men.
Streeting said he has no issue calling out sex abuse crimes, however rebuked Kemi Badenoch’s call for a national inquiry.
Streeting said he has no issue calling out sex abuse crimes
GettyHe said: “If Kemi Badenoch is in any doubt whatsoever about where irresponsible and coarse public discourse can lead on this issue, look on the other side of the world in Christchurch, where someone walked into a mosque and killed innocent Muslims stone cold dead with a gun whose magazine had inscribed on it ‘for Rotherham’.”
His comments were met with accusations from Conservatives of “dog whistle politics” and an attempt to save his Ilford North seat, which he held by only 528 votes in the last election against Independent British-Palestinian candidate Leanne Mohamad.
Former Tory minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “It is this type of playing the race card that led to the cover-up, with people saying, ‘We’re not going to believe these white girls – we’re not going to do anything about it because we upset community relations’. He has clearly learnt nothing from the thousands who have been abused.”
A spokesman for the Health Secretary said yesterday: “Wes was pointing out that two things are true – political correctness failed victims of Pakistani rape gangs, and people of Pakistani heritage appalled by these crimes are fearful of being tarred by the same brush.”
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This comes as shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick demanded Labour stop giving Pakistan millions of pounds while they’ve been blocking the removal of child sex abusers from Britain.
The UK has sent Pakistan over £1billion in aid over the past decade.
The ringleaders of grooming gangs that abused young white girls in Rochdale and other areas cannot be deported because Islamabad refuses to accept them.
Jenrick said: “It’s shameful that Pakistan is abusing our generosity, and madness the Government isn’t doing something about it”
The ringleaders of grooming gangs that abused young white girls in Rochdale and other areas cannot be deported because Islamabad refuses to accept them
Greater Manchester Police/PAConvicted Rochdale grooming gang leader Qari Abdul Rauf still lives in the town, almost a decade after being released from prison and ordered for deportation to Pakistan.
He was among nine members of the grooming gang jailed in 2012. He only served two-and-and-a-half years before being released in November 2024.
Other members of the rape gang avoided deportation too, like Abdul Aziz, who renounced his Pakistani citizenship and was allowed by the Home Office to stay in the UK.
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