Editorial Comment:

It is not racist to note that recent gang-related abuse of vulnerable white girls is mostly led by men from certain cultures; in fact it would be a form of racism to turn a blind eye to it. Unfortunately, political correctness drums out reason time and time again. For example, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, the former director of public prosecutions, has called the Newcastle grooming case a “profoundly racist crime”. If he is correct, it begs a question: why hasn’t race yet featured in the sentencing of the culprits?

It has done so in other cases. In 2015, for example, Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir was given a tougher sentence for child rape because his victims were Asian. The judge argued for this “aggravating feature” on the basis that their suffering would be made greater by ostracism within their community. The parallel with the Newcastle case is imperfect, but if a former head of the Crown Prosecution Service has pointed to the clear role of race in these crimes, it is very strange that of those sent to jail, not one has had race mentioned as a factor in the sentencing.

The Government says that political correctness must not hinder the war on grooming. Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham, where so many children were abused from 1997 to 2013, has said: “People are more afraid to be called a racist than they are afraid to be wrong about calling out child abuse.” And writing opposite, Trevor Phillips warns that the terror of being called Islamophobic has now eclipsed being called racist. Honesty is critical to justice, and a failure to be frank about what goes on in some parts of the country has betrayed the innocent. Hopefully this is a conversation Britain is now brave enough to have.