Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has demanded that Britain finally confront the full truth about the grooming gangs scandal and hold those responsible for the cover-up to account.
Speaking to GB News last night, Farage said: “I would want to go back 40 years, to look at police reports, notes of meetings. I would like every piece of written information over 40 years to be published. Redact the names to protect people if necessary.”
Farage’s comments come after eight closed grooming gang cases have been referred back to police for reinvestigation. This is part of Operation Beaconport, a major national review of hundreds of files where potential lines of inquiry may have been missed.
Farage said that the mass rape of mostly working-class British girls at the hands of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men exposed a catastrophic failure of the British state.
“I think there has been institutional failure from social services, from elected politicians, from police and it’s gone on for decade after decade”, he said. “I’m pleased something is happening. But it is nowhere near enough.”
Farage said politicians, local police chiefs and council leaders must be forced to answer for what happened. “It has to go to local police force commanders, it has to go to council leaders. Rotherham? Everyone knew”, he said.
“I remember being there in 2014. This had been known about for years and years and years and yet deliberately and wilfully, it wasn’t discussed for fear of stoking tensions.”
He added: “This appalling scandal shames us as a country in the eyes of the rest of the world. People can’t believe that this not only happened, but was allowed to perpetuate here.”
Today, Reform UK Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick has also launched a new bid to make those involved in the grooming gangs face the toughest possible sentences under British law.
Jenrick has presented a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament that would make whole-life sentences the starting point for adults convicted of serious child sexual offences committed as part of a group. Currently, the maximum sentence for facilitating or arranging child sexual exploitation as a group is 14 years. Some grooming gang perpetrators have received sentences of just four years for raping girls as young as 13. If passed, Jenrick’s Group-based Child Sexual Offences (Mandatory Life Sentences) Bill, would mean that offenders would die in prison with no chance of parole.
In a video posted to social media, Jenrick said: “A lot of people I speak to say bring back the death penalty for these evil men, so this seems like the least we should do for the victims.”
Jenrick cited the case of Yasser Mahmood, who drove at 111mph from Sparkbrook in Birmingham to Telford when he heard there was a 15-year-old girl at a friend’s house.
“When he got there, he raped and sexually abused her”, Jenrick explained. “His friend did the same. After forcing the poor girl through a trial, they were each sentenced to nine years in prison. Keep their heads down, and they’ll be out in six,” he said.
He added: “Some of the worst members of the Rotherham gang got just six years. In Rochdale, Ali Raza Kazmi got just eight years for raping a child. In Banbury, some got just four.”
Speaking to GB News last night, Farage said: “I would want to go back 40 years, to look at police reports, notes of meetings. I would like every piece of written information over 40 years to be published. Redact the names to protect people if necessary.”
Farage’s comments come after eight closed grooming gang cases have been referred back to police for reinvestigation. This is part of Operation Beaconport, a major national review of hundreds of files where potential lines of inquiry may have been missed.
Farage said that the mass rape of mostly working-class British girls at the hands of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men exposed a catastrophic failure of the British state.
“I think there has been institutional failure from social services, from elected politicians, from police and it’s gone on for decade after decade”, he said. “I’m pleased something is happening. But it is nowhere near enough.”
Farage said politicians, local police chiefs and council leaders must be forced to answer for what happened. “It has to go to local police force commanders, it has to go to council leaders. Rotherham? Everyone knew”, he said.
“I remember being there in 2014. This had been known about for years and years and years and yet deliberately and wilfully, it wasn’t discussed for fear of stoking tensions.”
He added: “This appalling scandal shames us as a country in the eyes of the rest of the world. People can’t believe that this not only happened, but was allowed to perpetuate here.”
Today, Reform UK Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick has also launched a new bid to make those involved in the grooming gangs face the toughest possible sentences under British law.
Jenrick has presented a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament that would make whole-life sentences the starting point for adults convicted of serious child sexual offences committed as part of a group. Currently, the maximum sentence for facilitating or arranging child sexual exploitation as a group is 14 years. Some grooming gang perpetrators have received sentences of just four years for raping girls as young as 13. If passed, Jenrick’s Group-based Child Sexual Offences (Mandatory Life Sentences) Bill, would mean that offenders would die in prison with no chance of parole.
In a video posted to social media, Jenrick said: “A lot of people I speak to say bring back the death penalty for these evil men, so this seems like the least we should do for the victims.”
Jenrick cited the case of Yasser Mahmood, who drove at 111mph from Sparkbrook in Birmingham to Telford when he heard there was a 15-year-old girl at a friend’s house.
“When he got there, he raped and sexually abused her”, Jenrick explained. “His friend did the same. After forcing the poor girl through a trial, they were each sentenced to nine years in prison. Keep their heads down, and they’ll be out in six,” he said.
He added: “Some of the worst members of the Rotherham gang got just six years. In Rochdale, Ali Raza Kazmi got just eight years for raping a child. In Banbury, some got just four.”
