The Labour Party’s definition of Islamophobia puts “grooming gangs” in inverted commas and forbids discussion on the scandal in relation to Muslims in fear of racism, Kemi Badenoch has claimed.
Labour adopted its definition in 2019 from a report by a group of MPs co-chaired by now-Health Secretary Wes Streeting. It includes a warning that “Asian grooming gangs” perpetuate “age-old stereotypes and tropes about Islam”.
The report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) said that discussing the scandal makes Muslims “vulnerable to hate crimes”.
During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch asked Sir Keir Starmer to cancel his party’s adoption of the APPG’s British Muslim report.
Badenoch told MPs Labour won’t discuss grooming gangs out of fears of inciting racism
PA
The Leader of the Opposition also asked whether the Government must also follow the 2019 definition, which he declined to rule out.
She said the “definition and examples” set out in the report were “exactly why people are scared to tell the truth”.
Ann Cryer, the former Labour MP who first voiced concerns about the scandal, said she was branded as racist in meetings and said that local authorities “were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness”.
Similarly, Andrew Norfolk, the journalist who exposed the child sexual exploitation scandal in Rotherham, was also hit with claims of racism.
MP Sarah Champion, another individual who spoke up for victims in the town, was nominated by an Islamic charity for 2018’s “Islamophobe of the year” awards.
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Sarah Champion was nominated by an Islamic charity for 2018’s “Islamophobe of the year” awards
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The APPG has maintained that its definition does not prohibit people from discussing “sex groomers” and that there was “nothing Islamophobic about addressing any crime”.
However, Badenoch said: “We know that people were scared to tell the truth because they thought they’d be called racist. If we want to stop this from ever happening again we cannot be afraid.
“The Labour Party has adopted the APPG definition of Islamophobia. That same APPG report said talking about sex groomers was an example of Islamophobia.
“This is exactly why people are scared to tell the truth and the lack of clarity means that innocent British Muslims are smeared by association.”
She said that only a national inquiry can solve this, urging the Prime Minister to reconsider his party’s adoption of the definition.
Starmer did not reply directly, saying he would “call out any aspect that has prevented anybody coming forward or any case going forward” when it comes to Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).
The Labour Party is considering implementing a formal definition of anti-Muslim discrimination to be used across the country, though critics have said this will act as a blasphemy law.
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Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, a project monitoring anti-Muslim hatred, said that he believes the APPG report is “too wide-ranging” and has a “lack of clarity”.
He said: “The definition also makes reference to grooming gangs and is not clear enough to provide distance between blaming all Muslims for grooming issues versus blaming suspected individuals or groups, and this bluntness and lack of clarity in the definition underlined another reason why this definition must be discarded.”
Mughal stressed that whilst it needs to be made “crystal clear” that the problem does not reflect all Muslims, there needs to be a “greater understanding of why there has been a concentration of men of Pakistani heritage in these gangs”.
Stephen Evans, the chief executive of the National Secular Society, said: “Portraying all Muslim men as potential sex abusers is clearly anti-Muslim bigotry, but the problem with ‘Islamophobia’ is the way the term is used to smear those with legitimate concerns.
“It’s vital that we can engage in open and honest discussions about a religion with increasing cultural and political significance. The term Islamophobia threatens to stifle these critical conversations.”
In response to Badenoch’s claims, the APPG on British Muslims said: “If the Leader of the Opposition thoroughly read the report, she would understand the report speaks about the collective smear and trope being used against all British Muslims, a point which she accepted in her own words, and does not speak about legitimate concerns about criminal activity committed by specific individuals.
“There is nothing racist or Islamophobic about addressing any crime or protecting victims, regardless of the ethnicity or faith of the perpetrator.”
GB News has contacted Labour for comment.
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