"The horrific crimes perpetrated against vulnerable girls in towns and cities across our country, by groups of Pakistani men, are now finally out in the open. I feel huge sense of relief that finally Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) can no longer be hidden away as a shameful secret by those in authority.It has been a long and struggle to get here. When I started speaking out in Parliament about CSE in 2016, having met Telford victims, the push back was swift and robust. There was coordinated official response by people in positions of power. The Telford Council Leader (now Telford’s [Labour] MP [
@ShaunDaviesMP
]) immediately published a letter to the Home Secretary stating that no inquiry into CSE was necessary. He backed up his assertion with claims that we now know were false. Multiple senior figures were asked to be co-signatories to his claims, to lend authority to them and they all readily agreed.The Council Leader and his councillors, instead of trying to right wrongs, set about discrediting the messengers; not just me but investigative journalists and victims, even claiming one victim was coming forward so she could sell her story. I was accused of lying, causing division, racism, being unbalanced, irrational, stupid and motivated not by desire to help victims but to score political points. This narrative was relentlessly pushed for as long as I campaigned on the issue. It had the intended effect of ensuring that the voice I sought to be for victims would not be heard.Early on I had an unexpected visit from the Chief Constable of West Mercia Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner. The Chief Constable was disparaging about Rotherham MP Sarah Champion [
@SarahChampionMP
] suggesting she was exaggerating the issue and was discredited. He said: “you wouldn’t want to be known as a troublemaker like Sarah Champion. It will harm your reputation and career.” The then newly minted Junior Minister for Safeguarding, Vicky Atkins MP [
@VictoriaAtkins
], told me not to speak to the media on the subject as ‘you do not understand the issues.’ I was summoned by Conservative Peer Baroness Warsi [
@sayeedawarsi
] to explain myself. Then there was the repeated refrain that as 90% of child abuse is committed by white men in domestic settings, why didn’t I concern myself with that as it was a more significant problem. This was a blatant denial of the existence of groups of interrelated men of Pakistani heritage, preying on young girls, at school gates, in takeaways, taxis and playgrounds. They did not want to know.Then there was the appalling victim blaming, referring always to the victims’ ‘risky behaviours’ and the fact that the victims had ‘sought contact with multiple males.’ In one case a young victim was described to me by police as ‘having been in contact with 53 different Asian males’ as if it were by choice, illustrating complete denial that these men were related to each other through cousin marriage and were engaged in a joint enterprise.I thought the desire by the authorities to hush it up was to disguise shortcomings in the organisations they led. But now I know it wasn’t just that: the people in power believed that being honest about what had happened would fuel racial tensions. They pushed a narrative that hiding the problem was in the interests of the community that looking the other way would cement social cohesion and protect society.I know now that that this was the line pushed by Home Office officials themselves. Junior ministers both Conservative and Labour have spun the same lines almost word for word, clearly at the behest of Civil Servants.People have accused Telford’s Council Leader of a cover up. It is more complicated than that. His public statement saying no inquiry was necessary was signed by him, but I do not believe it was written by him. Whist he may have been willing to collude with officials to protect his career, he was not the instigator of the pretence. Public denial of these horrific crimes was the standard response by officials both locally and in Whitehall. It takes bravery for a politician to speak up and the repercussions can be costly. If Telford’s Council leader had been courageous, if he had done the right thing, it is unlikely he would be in Parliament now sitting on the Home Affairs Select Committee, tasked with holding the Home Office to account; perhaps in it was more cowardice and self-interest than cover up.The denial strategy may be motivated by good intentions, but it is fatally flawed. At best, it is an insult to victims and to all fair-minded people. At worst, it is a deeply divisive, dishonest policy that destroys our social fabric and the social contract between State and individual. Officials have actively sought to hide reality from politicians and too many politicians are willing to collude. We know now we have been routinely lied to by the State and now we can no longer trust the State.Lucy Allan was the Conservative MP for Telford 2015-2024 and a campaigner on Child Sexual Exploitation throughout her time in Parliament.
