Javid savages the ‘sick Asian paedophiles’ who groomed girls aged 11
HOME Secretary Sajid Javid has launched an outspoken attack on the Huddersfield grooming gang – who targeted girls as young as 11 – by explicitly highlighting their racial heritage.
In comments that triggered a storm on social media, Mr Javid described the gang members as ‘sick Asian paedophiles’ – leading one Twitter user to accuse him of trying to appeal to ‘far-right extremists’.
Twenty men were f ound guilty on Friday of belonging to a grooming gang that raped and abused young girls in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
The men were convicted of more than 120 offences against 15 girls. The victims were plied with drink and drugs during a seven-year campaign of rape and abuse between 2004 and 2011.
The men were all British Asians, with most of them – like Mr Javid – of Pakistani heritage. All but two of the victims were white.
After t he verdicts were announced, Mr Javid – who has adopted a high public profile in recent weeks ahead of an expected challenge for the Tory leadership if Prime Minister Theresa May steps down – tweeted: ‘These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice. I want to commend the bravery of the victims. For too long, they were ignored. Not on my watch. There will be no no-go areas.’
His remark was ‘liked’ and copied by more than 10,000 Twitter users the following day. It also attracted more than 4,000 comments, many objecting to his choice of words.
Labour’s Shadow Equalities Minister, Dawn Butler, tweeted: ‘No, Home Secretary, paedophiles are defined by their crimes and not their ethnicity. They are paedophiles. Condemn the crime, not the race.’
Many pointed out that Asian was an unhelpfully broad term, with one man replying: ‘Do not refer to these men as “Asian”. It’s misleading. There are no Chinese or Japanese men amongst them.
‘ Their background is quite specific in most cases, smearing others with them is unacceptable.’ Another tweeted: ‘If they were white would you say “these sick white paedophiles ”? Probably not. But it should be possible to stop abusers without pandering to racist narratives in the process.’
Others highlighted his use of the phrase ‘no-go areas’, a controversial term used by supporters of US President Donald Trump and Tommy Robinson – former leader of the farRight English Defence League – when claiming parts of Britain are under Sharia law.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘You may appeal to the far right extremists, but decent people, and we are the majority, will not forgive you for this.’
Mr Javid was born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, after his parents moved to Britain from Pakistan in 1961.
He was elected as Tory MP for Bromsgrove in 2010 but his Twitter comments have come under much greater scrutiny since becoming Home Secretary in April.
In August he criticised Jeremy Corbyn for using the term Zionist in a speech, claiming the Labour leader would never dare single out Asians in the same way. ‘If Corbyn had said “Asians” or “Blacks” instead of “Zionists” he’d be gone by now,’ Mr Javid tweeted.
A spokesman for Mr Javid declined to comment.