Rishi Sunak is to announce new measures to tackle grooming gangs on Monday, claiming that “political correctness” would not get in the way of a crackdown, while his home secretary was accused of “dog whistle” rhetoric over child sexual exploitation.
A new grooming gang taskforce will be set up with specialist officers, supported by the National Crime Agency, helping local forces and offering the use of ethnicity data to assist police investigations.
Before the announcement, Sunak warned that for too long “political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women”. He added: “We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs.”
However, the government faced criticism for its failure to act sooner, with Labour accusing it of a “hopelessly inadequate, belated and narrow” response to a long-term problem.
Suella Braverman on Sunday prompted an angry reaction when she singled out British Pakistani men over concerns about grooming gangs as she accused authorities of turning a “blind eye” to signs of abuse over fears of being labelled “racist”.
The home secretary told Sky News they held cultural values “totally at odds” with British values and regarded women in a “demeaning and illegitimate way” while behaving in an “outdated and frankly heinous” way.
However, an official report by the Home Office in 2020 concluded that most child sexual abuse gangs are made up of white men under the age of 30, adding that there was not enough evidence to suggest members of grooming gangs were disproportionately more likely to be Asian or black.
Braverman’s comments were criticised by the NSPCC, who warned the home secretary that sexual predators do not just come from “one background” and that a focus solely on race could create new “blind spots” when tackling child abuse.
Sir Peter Wanless, the child protection charity’s chief executive, said: “Any child can be a victim of child sexual exploitation and adult perpetrators do not just come from one background. Sexual predators will target the most vulnerable and accessible children in society, and there must be a focus on more than just race so we do not create new blind spots that prevent victims from being identified.
“Better data collection by law enforcement as part of the package of measures announced today would help ensure that all those working to protect children have a clearer, evidence-based understanding of child sexual abuse and exploitation so it can be tackled more effectively.”
High-profile cases, including in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, have involved groups of men of mainly Pakistani ethnicity, fuelling a perception that it is an “Asian problem”. As a result, “Asian grooming gangs” have become a cause célèbre for the far right.
The West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin, appearing on the same programme as Braverman, criticised her remarks, suggesting the home secretary was unaware of some of the action already being taken to tackle gangs.
“This is a home secretary that has also made it more difficult for victims of sex trafficking to be protected from those grooming gangs that she was talking about,” she said. “It feels very dog-whistle, if I may say, and it doesn’t deal with what is happening on the ground.”
Braverman has already announced plans for a consultation on introducing a mandatory duty on professionals working with children to report concerns about sexual abuse.
Sunak will also say that grooming gang members and leaders will receive the toughest sentences possible, with the introduction of new laws that would make membership an aggravated factor in sentencing.
However, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Ministers have known about the role of organised gangs in child exploitation for years – yet when Labour called for mandatory reporting and expanded police specialist teams nearly a decade ago, they failed to act and have dragged their heels ever since.
“Short-term headlines aren’t enough. We need a comprehensive plan that listens to survivors and victims and properly tackles child exploitation and abuse, including online, to keep children safe.”
Only 11% of child sexual abuse cases end with a charge, down from 32% seven years ago, according to official figures, while court delays have grown far worse, leading to some victims waiting years for justice.
The children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, welcomed the plans but urged ministers to “extend this same focus to children arriving in the UK who often face similar dangers”.
