Wes Streeting has warned of the dangers of vilification in regards to grooming gangs, pointing to the 2019 mosque massacre in New Zealand as what the result could look like for Britain if “entire communities” are “tarred with the same brush”.
In March 2019 Australian far-right extremist Brenton Tarrant opened fire in two mosques in the city of Christchurch, on New Zealand’s south island.
A total of 51 people were killed and a further 89 were injured, making the atrocity New Zealand’s worst-ever mass shooting.
Tarrant livestreamed the atrocity on the social media platform Facebook, with his weapons and ammunition adorned with white supremacist symbols.
One clip of ammunition clip had the “For Rotherham” scrawled upon it; seemingly a reference to the child sexual exploitation scandal uncovered in the UK town.
In an interview with the Guardian, the Health Secretary said he had “no difficulty or qualms” in calling out the “sickening” crimes of sexual abuse gangs in the UK.
He also criticised the “well-meaning, but ultimately fundamentally misguided and warped views of political correctness” of police and council agencies that let down thousands of children who desperately needed their protection.
The Ilford North MP said: “At the same time, there are people in my community who have either Pakistani heritage or look different, who are now more fearful today than they were before.”
“Victims’ voices have been completely marginalised, and I think that’s a disgrace,” he said.
He then challenged Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to look halfway around the world to see where “irresponsible and coarse public discourse can lead on this issue”.
“If Kemi Badenoch is in any doubt whatsoever … look on the other side of the world, in Christchurch, New Zealand, where someone walked into a mosque and killed innocent Muslims stone cold dead with a gun whose magazine had inscribed on it ‘for Rotherham’.
“We have to be extremely clear about the failings and the nature of it, and not allow political correctness, fear of stating the truth as it is to fail victims, as has happened before. We must also make sure that entire communities are not tarred with the same brush.”
Mr Musk’s barrage of attacks against the Prime Minister have dominated Westminster over recent days and led Sir Keir to accuse critics of spreading “lies and misinformation”.
He has defended his tenure as director of public prosecutions and claims he tackled child sexual abuse charges “head-on”.
The Conservatives accused Labour MPs of having “turned a blind eye to justice” for victims of grooming gangs after their amendment to the Government’s child protection Bill calling for another national inquiry was rejected, while tech billionaire Elon Musk described it as “unbelievable”.
Mr Streeting suggested to The Guardian that Mr Musk’s recent input into public discourse on the matter of child exploitation in the UK could be a sign of the significance of technology’s role in democracy.
“As with any revolution, the key thing is that power, wealth and opportunity is in the hands of the many, not the privileged few. I think technology can have a liberating role,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure that technology is harnessed for the common good, and we’ve got to make sure that it’s governed by democratic principles.
“There is going to be a big global battle over this over the course of this century, as to whether it’s democracy or tyranny that triumphs in this space.”
Mr Streeting’s comments come in the wake of recent online and political debate that has seen calls for an inquiry into child rape by Pakistani men, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage demanding a probe into “to what extent were gangs of Pakistani men raping young white girls.”
However, Richard Fewkes, the director of the NPCC’s Hydrant programme targeting child sexual abuse, said there is no “significant issue” with “any particular ethnicity or setting”.
New figures from the police database show that, where ethnicity data was available, 85% of “group-based” child abusers were white in the first three quarters of 2024.
The same data for the whole of 2023 showed 83% of offenders were white.
“(The data) reflects what you would expect to see across the country in terms of ethnicity,” Mr Fewkes said.
“Offences where grooming gangs are involved are predominantly white.
“There is not a significant issue here with any particular ethnicity or setting.”
Mr Fewkes’ comments come after tech entrepreneur Elon Musk used his social media platform X to wage an online campaign against the government over the issue of grooming gangs.
Grooming gangs are behind two child sexual abuse offences reported to police every day, The Telegraph reported.
The billionaire has accused the Prime Minister of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” over his record as a former director of public prosecutions, and called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “witch” and a “rape genocide apologist”.
On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin to implement Professor Alexis Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, with further details expected to be set out in the coming weeks.
