Corbyn denies silencing MP on child abuse issue
LABOUR LEADER SAYS ‘YOU CANNOT BLAME AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY’ AS SHADOW MINISTER QUITS IN ROW OVER SEX CRIMES BY PAKISTANI MEN
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn has denied ‘silencing’ a shadow minister who claimed Pakistani men have been ‘raping young white girls’ in areas such as Rochdale.
Sarah Champion quit as equalities minister on Tuesday amid a storm over an article she wrote for a national newspaper.
She had called for a ‘grown up conversation’ about Asian grooming gangs, arguing that society and the government must ‘face up to the fact’ that men of Pakistani heritage had been exploiting mainly white girls. The MP for Rotherham - a town that has been plagued by a similar grooming scandal to that in Rochdale - said until the reasons for their behaviour were understood, it would be impossible to prevent such abuse.
Speaking during a visit to Bolton, Mr Corbyn refused to back that view. He said: “Child exploitation is wrong, child abuse is wrong, it’s a crime that has to be dealt with.
“You cannot blame an entire community, an entire nation or an entire ethnic community, you have to deal with the crime of what it is.”
Ms Champion, who has campaigned for five years around child grooming gangs in her constituency, began her article by stating that Britain ‘has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting young girls.’
She concluded the sentencing of a huge grooming gang in Newcastle last month only underlined the fact ‘we must accept that for gangrelated child sexual exploitation, the convictions have largely been against British Pakistani men.’
Mr Corbyn denied ‘silencing’ debate on the issue, including Ms Champion, insisting she had resigned of her own accord.
“I’m not silencing anybody,” he said.
“Sarah Champion offered her resignation because she didn’t want the issue to become a distraction.”