Home secretary Sajid Javid has courted controversy for tweeting about "Asian paedophiles."
Javid was tweeting about the case of grooming gang in Huddersfield that abused and raped girls as young as 11.
Javid tweeted: "These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice. I want to commend the bravery of the victims. For too long, they were ignored. Not on my watch. There will be no no-go areas."
MPs and human rights activists have rebuked Javid for the tweet that highlighted the perpetrators' ethnicity.
Labour MP David Lammy said Javid’s tweet could result in ethnic minorities being targeted.
“Sajid Javid has brought a great office of state into disrepute,” Lammy said, according to The Guardian. “By singling out ‘Asians’ he not only panders to the far right but increases the risk of violence and abuse against minorities across the country.
“Whatever the underlying motives of the offenders involved, paedophilia is an abhorrent crime that affects all communities. It does no service to the victims of this evil to pin the blame on any one group.”
Diane Abbot, the shadow home secretary, said attributing these crimes to one ethnic community does nothing to support the vulnerable victims who fell prey to these grooming gangs.
“The only universal facts are that the scale of sexual abuse in this country is staggering, the needs of these vulnerable women and girls are repeatedly ignored and this government is simply not doing enough to combat it,” said Abbot.
Shoaib Khan, a human rights lawyer, said: “This tweet is irresponsible, dangerous and divisive. It is unbelievable that it is a genuine tweet from a serving home secretary, who was previously communities secretary.
“Not only does it show just how tone-deaf the home secretary is to British society, but it is factually incorrect. In particular, the perpetuation of the myth that ‘no-go areas’ exist in this country is particularly irresponsible and misleading.
“Defining these criminals by their ethnicity is also playing right into the hands of the far right. Unless it is now Home Office policy that any time an incident is reported on, the perpetrator’s ethnicity will be mentioned, the home secretary should admit he was wrong, retract this tweet and apologise.”
On Friday, 20 men were found guilty of more than 120 offences against 15 girls in Huddersfield. The men - all British Asians - plied the girls with drinks and drugs and "used and abused at will" in a seven-year "campaign of rape and abuse" between 2004 and 2011.
Kulsuma Aktergetty images