Race row flares over ex minister's sex comments

Labour MP Jack Straw. Photo / File Photo

A row over race and sexual exploitation in Britain flared as opponents and supporters reacted to a suggestion by Labour MP Jack Straw that some Pakistani men groomed white girls for sexual abuse.

The former Home Secretary was accused of trying to "stereotype a whole community" after he suggested that some Pakistani men in Britain saw white girls as "easy meat".

He was also criticised for not speaking out on the issue when his party was in power.

The Blackburn MP made his comments on Saturday after two Asian men were sentenced for a series of rapes and sexual assaults on vulnerable young girls.

Abid Mohammed Saddique, 27, was jailed for a minimum of 11 years and Mohammed Romaan Liaqat, 28, was given eight years when they appeared in at Nottingham Crown Court. They were ringleaders of a gang who befriended girls as young as 12 in the Derby area and groomed them for sex.

Straw told BBC's Newsnight it was a "specific problem" in the Pakistani community.

"These young men are in a Western society. In any event, they act like any other young men: they're fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that.

"But Pakistani-heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a girl from Pakistan. So they seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat."

Keith Vaz, MP for Leicester East and chairman of Parliament's home affairs select committee, was among the first to criticise his Labour colleague.

"I disagree with Jack Straw - I don't think you can stereotype a whole community. One can accept the evidence that is put before us about patterns of networks, but to go that step further is pretty dangerous."

Straw came under fire for not speaking about the issue earlier. Mandy Sanghera, a human rights activist based in the West Midlands, said: "I think Jack Straw has made a point, but I wonder why he left it until he was in opposition, with no power, to make it. We have to also remember that vulnerable children from all communities can be groomed, and not just on the street."

But not everyone was critical of Straw's outspoken comments.

Atma Singh, from the Sikh Community Action Network, said: "Well done to Jack Straw for being 100 per cent honest and saying what many people already know - that there are pockets of youngsters in the Pakistani Muslim community who treat girls from other communities as sexual objects."

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