MP's grooming gang comments slammed

AN MP who branded the grooming gangs coverage a "false, right-wing narrative" has been condemned as "very naïve at best and malicious at worst".

- By Charlie Bradley

Ayoub Khan, who became an independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr last year, said the "narrative" around gangs who preyed on vulnerable young white girls had been created to "sow division".

Official reports concluded thousands of girls were systematically abused by men of mainly Pakistani heritage.

The first crimes were committed in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in the mid-1990s but soon spread to other areas such as Bradford, Rochdale, Oldham and Telford.

However, in most cases police failed to act when alerted by parents, girls or carers.

In January, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper rejected calls for a national inquiry and instead promised five local inquiries.

Mr Khan made the comments in a speech at a meeting of British-Pakistani politicians in Birmingham last weekend, which included Tahir Ali, Labour MP for the city's Hall Green and Moseley constituency.

He said: "When the right-wing media and those that seek to undermine, they are using their false narrative.