Suella Braverman has defended her use of language after claiming grooming gang members are “almost all British-Pakistani”, describing them as “unfashionable facts” in the face of a backlash.
In a column for The Spectator, the home secretary said it was not racist to speak “plain truths” – though she stressed most British-Pakistani men are not perpetrators of sexual abuse.
“There is something peculiar about this political moment, where those of us advancing unfashionable facts are beaten over the head with fashionable fictions,” Ms Braverman wrote.
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“I suppose the ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators in a string of cases is the sort of fact that has simply become unfashionable in some quarters – like the fact that 100% of women do not have a penis.”
Earlier this month Ms Braverman made several comments about the ethnicity of abusers in high-profile gangs.
In comments that generated heavy criticism, she told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “What’s clear is that what we’ve seen is a practice whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks.”
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In a newspaper column she said “the perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani”.
And she also claimed Labour-run areas failed to stop child grooming gangs over fears they would be called “racist”.
Dozens of Muslim organisations, medical bodies and business leaders urged her to withdraw the comments, accusing her of “amplifying far-right narratives”.
The remarks were also criticised as factually inaccurate given a Home Office-commissioned study in 2020 found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white males under 30.
But Ms Braverman doubled down on her remarks in her The Spectator piece.
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“To say the overwhelming majority of perpetrators in towns such as Rotherham, Telford, and Rochdale were British-Pakistani and that their victims were white girls is not to say that most British-Pakistanis are perpetrators of sexual abuse,” she said.
“The former is a truth, one that made authorities reluctant to confront the issue. The latter is a lie, the speaking of which would be a disgraceful prejudice.
“Casually accusing me of racism for speaking plain truths distorts the meaning of the term, and does a great disservice to all of us working to combat racism.”
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Previously, The Muslim Council of Britain urged the government to “adhere to the facts of the matter, rather than deploying deeply divisive, racially charged rhetoric that amplifies far-right narratives and demonises an entire community”.
And the Muslim Women’s network, which has worked with Asian victims of Child sexual exploitation, said Ms Braverman’s “approach…of demonising an entire community and lending credibility to far-right narratives undermines the need to ensure all victims of CSE are protected and all perpetrators are bought to justice”.
