'Floppy left' fear racist tag on sex grooming, says Labour MP Sarah Champion
A former Labour frontbencher says many London-based party colleagues do not understand life outside the capital.
Saturday 2 September 2017 21:44, UK
Politicians on the "floppy left" are too scared to confront the facts on sex grooming gangs because they fear being branded racist, a Labour MP has said.
Sarah Champion, who as Labour's shadow women and equalities minister, also accused many London-based colleagues of misunderstanding towns in northern England.
The MP for Rotherham quit the frontbench after writing in The Sun that Britain "has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls".
There has been a series of cases in towns including Rochdale, Oxford and in which groups of men, largely of Pakistani origin, have been convicted of multiple sex crimes against white girls.
Ms Champion's article led to a backlash from within Labour, while leader Jeremy Corbyn, an MP for Islington in north London, said his party would not "blame" or "demonise any particular group".
But in an interview with The Times, Ms Champion said the reaction was largely provoked by a fear of being tagged racist.
"If I'm on the floppy left, to be accused of racism is probably the worst thing you can call me," she said.
"That fear will motivate me to step away from a lot of topics I'd maybe tackle head on if I didn't have that phobia."
Ms Champion added many London-based Labour members and politicians lived in a largely "tolerant, multicultural world", and had "never been challenged by a reality that's different".
"London is not representative of the UK and it's definitely not representative of the North of England in relation to race," she added.
"Rotherham and many post-industrial towns are still segregated."
When Ms Champion stood down, she apologised for the "extremely poor choice of words in The Sun article".
Factually, however, she has insisted she was correct and said her position was "not an opinion, although people would like it to be".
She added: "It's based on the facts of this very specific form of grooming of girls by gangs of men.
"It's a very consistent model of recruitment, manipulation and exploitation, and when you look at the figures of the people who've been arrested and convicted, the vast, vast majority are British-Pakistani men."
In contrast to the reaction within her own party following her Sun article, Ms Champion says her email inbox "went nuts with overwhelmingly positive messages".
"Police, social workers, children's charities, health professionals were getting in touch and saying, 'Thank God you've said it; now maybe we can actually start dealing with this'.
"The relief they were expressing was extraordinary," she said.
A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said: "Sexual abuse is an extremely serious crime that requires effective action to tackle it.
"To do so, we must focus on the perpetrators and how we can prevent grooming of women and girls.
"These heinous crimes are committed by people of all backgrounds.
"Stigmatising entire communities is wrong, and damages the interests of victims of sexual abuse and the rigorous investigation into the underlying causes of that abuse."