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Politics latest: Baroness Casey hits out at 'do-gooders' for 'giving racists more ammunition'

The author of the government's audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country has been speaking to Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge about what she found - and how it made her "angry".

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Baroness Casey hits out at 'do-gooders' for 'giving racists more ammunition'

Sophy Ridge turns next to the ethnicity of perpetrators, and the section of Baroness Louise Casey's report that talks about the "palpable discomfort in any discussion of ethnicity".

Casey wrote: "The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can't be proved."

Asked what she meant by that, Casey explains that ethnicity data is not being properly collected by police, the local authorities, nor the Home Office.

"I looked at the latest data - to be fair to the last government, they had a slightly better go at it," she says.

"It's a third. So you only collect ethnicity in a third of the cases, and of that third, 80% are white. That doesn't tell me the perpetrators of child sexual exploitation are white - it tells me you don't know.

"And I really object to that because I think it isn't fair on the victims. And it also isn't fair on Asian and Pakistani communities who are almost tarnished by that, when actually the national data doesn't take you there. "

Casey criticises 'do-gooders'

Asked directly if there is an issue with some British Asian men, Casey replies: "Well, yes, because it's abundantly clear from the West Yorkshire Police data from the Greater Manchester Police data and South Yorkshire Police data.

"You do have in child sexual exploitation a disproportionality."

Establishing the facts can "take the pain out of this".

She adds: "I think you've got sort of do-gooders that don't really want this to be found because, you know, 'Oh, God, then all the racists are going to be more racist'.

"Well, actually, people that are racist are going to use this anyway. All you're doing with the hate mongers and the racists is giving them more and more ammunition."

She adds: "Follow the facts and if anything is ever difficult, have a really good look at it."

'We have to grasp this as a society'

Asked if there has a tendency to label people raising concerns about this as racist, Casey replies: "Yes. I mean, I found it in Rotherham."

She says she saw in Rotherham the word "Pakistani" tip-exxed out, which was "inadvertently was giving ammunition to the English Defence League".

"I think the problem is that people are worried about being called racist, in a way, they just give more ammunition.

"If good people don't grasp difficult things, bad people will, and that's why we have to do it as a society."

'Sod this': Casey explains why she changed her mind on a public inquiry

Next, Sophy Ridge asks Baroness Louise Casey why she has decided to recommend a statutory public inquiry into grooming gangs, having previously said it wasn't needed.

Casey makes clear that she did not state a firm position either way before putting together her rapid review, saying: "I thought it was right that somebody said, 'we just need to get a grip of this'.

"And at the time [in January], I thought to myself, the last thing we need is another big national inquiry. If there are people out there committing these crimes, let's spend the money that we've got on going after them.

"If there's a safety net that needs improving for kids in care, let's spend the money."

She says it "wasn't a political thing", but didn't "see the necessity" after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that explored "institutional failings".

But she says that when the government announced its plan for five local inquiries, and only Oldham took it up, and when she saw that serious case reviews did not look at the perpetrators and their ethnicity, she "felt more and more frustrated".

"Sod this. Sorry. These are victims, and we need to do right by them. And if that takes a statutory inquiry, I'm going to go and get one for these girls," she said.

Baroness Casey: 'I am angry on behalf of the victims - and those we don't know about yet'

We are now speaking on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge with Baroness Louise Casey, who authored the government's rapid review of child sexual exploitation.

She tells Sophy Ridge: "I am angry. I'm angry on behalf of the victims. I'm angry on behalf of the victims that we don't know about, yet that might be watching this programme right now and will have been abused, or indeed raped, at the age of 13 or 14, where they will have been told by their perpetrators, 'it's on you'."

Casey recounts the case of a girl who was raped by multiple men on her 13th birthday, and explains that once someone is a teenager, "it makes it much harder to prosecute for rape".

The government will now tighten up those laws, and Casey wants to make clear that "children are children", and we need to call rape what it is.

Pastoral care is much easier for younger children, but as children become teenagers, they may not be in school as often, and they have more independence, which makes it harder for the state to keep track of them.

"We don't see them as children. We see them as adults, wayward teenagers, people making wrong choices. And that's why I think the law around rape has to be much clearer.

"Children are children and we should prosecute people that do the sorts of things we're talking about right now as rape."

The Casey report says something that has never been said so clearly before

The grooming gang scandal is something that has cast shame on this country.

Some of the most vulnerable girls in this country raped, abused, beaten - and then let down again by the institutions that they should have been able to trust.

Ignored, dismissed, or worst of all, treated like they were the ones who had something to be ashamed of. As if they were the criminals, rather than the victims.

And those girls have also been let down by the Westminster debate around this, that frankly has been more interested in political point scoring than the sexual abuse of working class girls.

But today, however, something changed, with the astonishingly brave report by Baroness Louise Casey - a woman who is a truly a force of nature.

This abuse scandal has been riven with difficulty because the crimes were predominantly carried out against white girls by British-Pakistani men - and that is something that the Casey report tackles head on.

It found that in cases of child sexual exploitation, "the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators" - which obviously means it's hard to gain a full picture of what's going on.

But she goes on to say: "There is enough evidence available in local police data in three police force areas that we examined which show disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds among suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as in the significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews and high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country, to at least warrant further examination."

Nowhere and at no point has that been said so clearly before.

And she goes further: "The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with White perpetrators when that can't be proved."

The system. She doesn't say what the system is, but we all know what she means. And I have to say, it is so refreshing to read a report from someone who cares so little for the opinion of the system.

Louise Casey says she conducted her audit with the victims front and centre of her mind. And it shows.

Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live

Our flagship weeknight politics programme is under way.

Joining us tonight are Baroness Louise Casey, who authored the government's rapid review on child sexual abuse, and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.

On our panel are Starmer biographer Tom Baldwin, and former safeguarding minister, Laura Farris.

Watch live in the stream at the top of this page.

Meanwhile, minister Hamish Falconer is giving a statement in the Commons about the government's response to the Air India crash last week, which you can watch live below.

Sky News Daily: Was there a Whitehall cover-up of the grooming gangs scandal?

Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011.

That's according to Dominic Cummings, who was working for Gove at the time.

In an interview with Sky's political correspondent Liz Bates, Cummings has revealed how officials in the Department for Education wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.

On the Sky News Daily, Mark Austin speaks to Liz Bates about the scandal and what Cummings told her.

Starmer joins Trump and G7 leaders for roundtable meeting

As we've reported, the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is in Canada to meet with fellow G7 leaders.

He is currently in a roundtable discussion, and is pictured below sitting next to US president Donald Trump.

We would imagine there will be more than a whisper in his here about implementing the trade deal signed with great fanfare last month...

Lammy: 'No military action can put an end to Iran's capabilities'

The foreign secretary tells MPs that "it should come as no surprise that Israel considers the Iranian nuclear programme an existential threat", pointing to comments from Iran's leader about Israel's destruction.

David Lammy says: "We have always supported Israeli security. That is why Britain has sought to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon through extensive diplomacy.

"We agree with President Trump when he says that negotiations are necessary and must lead to a deal."

That has "long been the view" of succesive government, Lammy says, and explains that the UK, France, and Germany have had five rounds of talks with Iran this year alone.

"Fundamentally, no military action can put an end to Iran's capabilities," he says.

The foreign secretary says 20 plots from Iran on British soil have been foiled since 2022, and lists various measures the government is taking to limit Iran's influence in the UK.

But on the Middle East, he says: "A widening war would have grave an unpredictable consequences, including for our partners in Jordan and the Gulf."

With the ongoing war in Gaza, instability in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq on the rise, and the Houthi threat remaining, Lammy says "further escalation in the Middle East is not in Britain's interest".

With Iran being a main oil producer and a vast amount of the world's trade flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, an "escalating conflict poses real risk for the global economy".

To that end, the government's message to Israel and Iran is: "Step back, show restraint, don't get pulled ever deeper into a catastrophic conflict whose consequences nobody can control."

Lammy also calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, restrictions on aid to be lifted, and adds that the government "will not stop striving to free the hostages" still being held by Hamas.

Missile sirens sound in Israel as Lammy addresses MPs on conflict

As the foreign secretary addresses the House of Commons, sirens have gone off in many parts of Israel.

The IDF says missiles have been launched by Iran at Israel, and people in those areas should go to bomb shelters until they are told it is safe.

Follow live updates here...

Foreign secretary explains how the Foreign Office is helping UK nationals stuck in Israel

The foreign secretary opens his statement to MPs by saying that Israel launched "extensive strikes" on "targets including military sites", nuclear sites, key commanders, and nuclear scientists, and Iran has responded with ballistic missile fire.

The government first priority is "the welfare of British nationals", David Lammy says, and says they "stood up a crisis team in London and the region".

He tells the House that the government is now asking UK nationals to register with the Foreign Office so they can "share important information on the situation, and leaving the country".

Rapid deployment teams are being sent to Egypt and Jordan to help UK nationals who decide to leave Israel by road, given that the airspace remains closed.

Lammy says: "The situation remains fast moving. We expect more strikes in the days to come.

"This is a moment of grave danger for the region, and I want to be clear - the United Kingdom was not involved in the strikes against Iran. This is a military action conducted by Israel."