US political commentator Ben Shapiro has condemned Britain’s handling of grooming gangs, claiming thousands of children were “sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism”.
Speaking on GBN America, Shapiro said the issue was one he and others had been highlighting “for a long time”.
“The fact Britain decided to basically sacrifice thousands, if not tens of thousands of its children on the altar of multiculturalism demonstrates a sickness at the heart of civilisation that needs to be healed,” he said.
Shapiro criticised multiculturalism as an unworkable system, arguing that “the West is a workable system and people can either assimilate or they’re going to be a threat to it.”
Ben Shapiro hit out at failures to tackle the grooming gangs scandal
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His comments follow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement of £10 million in funding for new local inquiries into grooming gangs.
The government plans will focus on “cultural drivers” and the ethnicity of perpetrators, with Ms Cooper acknowledging current data on ethnicity was “inadequate”.
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Five new inquiries will be established, including one in Oldham, as part of a pilot programme.
Baroness Louise Casey will conduct a three-month “rapid audit” examining the current scale of exploitation across the country.
The plan includes implementing all recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s 2022 report on grooming gangs.
The impact of grooming gangs was highlighted in Bradford Crown Court last week, where eight men were jailed for offences dating back to the late 1990s.
Three men – Ibrar Hussain, 47, and brothers Imtiaz Ahmed, 62, and Fayaz Ahmed, 45 – were sentenced for raping a girl aged between 13 and 14.
The victim, now in her 40s, said in court: “If I had been listened to sooner rather than later, maybe, just maybe, my life could have been different.”
Judge Ahmed Nadim criticised authorities’ historical response, saying police and social services were either “ill-equipped” or “disinterested” in addressing victims’ needs.
The court heard the victim was “ploughed with drugs and alcohol to numb the abuse”.
Dr Taj Hargey from the Oxford Institute for British Islam has accused Labour of refusing a national inquiry to “secure the Muslim-bloc vote”.
Speaking to GB News, he said: “This is just a cover-up. If the most of these perpetrators were Tory voters, we would have a national inquiry tomorrow.”
The controversy intensified after Labour rejected Oldham Council’s request for a government inquiry.
Several Labour MPs have broken ranks with party leadership on the issue, including representatives from Rotherham, Rochdale and Liverpool Walton.
Conservative leader criticised the local inquiry approach, with Ms Badenoch noting: “Oldham has decided not to do the local inquiry and asked for a national inquiry because it knows that local inquiries are limited.”
