Labour plays into far right lies

Mahmood wants to sugarcoat Labour’s border crackdown by proposing some new routes for asylum seekers (Photo: ShabanaMahmood/X)

Politicians and the media are once again using the victims of child abuse in Rochdale and Oldham, Greater Manchester as a political football.

Labour home secretary Shabana Mahmood is grandstanding over deporting Shabir Ahmed, the leader of a child sexual exploitation (CSE) ring.

Mahmood wants to change a law designed to protect “most notably the Windrush generation” from deportation.

She is playing into the far right lie that Asian or Muslim men pose a particular threat to women and girls.

The far right has long stoked the myth that Ahmed was not identified sooner because the police were too “woke” and refused to investigate Asian men.

But sexism, not race or fears of “political correctness”, caused the horrific child sexual exploitation scandals.

The police, council and social services ignored victims and years of evidence of CSE between 2004 and 2012.

An inquiry into the abuse found that Greater Manchester Police and the council had “structural flaws” in safeguarding systems.

In fact, multiple concerns were raised about Ahmed and his arrest for the sexual assault of children.

But police failed to tell Oldham Council, where he worked as a welfare rights officer.

Survivors in Rochdale have come forward in recent years saying that the police also abused and raped them.

A sexist system that treats working class women and girls as worthless lies behind the scandals.

Amber—one of the child victims—described how the police “weren’t bothered when you’re from a shit home. They don’t give a fuck when you’re not from a wealthy background”.

There is no evidence that Asian men, or any migrants, are more likely to commit CSE.

Data from 2024 shows that white people are far more likely to be guilty of CSE—they represent 83 percent of all cases, Asians account for 7 percent.

Ahmed used to hold dual British and Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of his British citizenship when sentenced in 2012.

Since his release, he has been staying in controlled accommodation, monitored 24 hours a day and is fitted with a GPS tracker.

He has been stripped of Pakistani citizenship too.

Labour says he cannot be deported due to a law from 1973, which protects Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1971.

Mahmood wants to smash this protection up and deport migrants who are guilty of certain crimes.

She has seized on the case of a vile sexist abuser to push through a more draconian law which clears the way for sweeping attacks on all migrants and asylum seekers.

Changing the rules could remove decades worth of precedent and put people’s rights at risk.

Weaponising racism in the name of protecting women and girls undermines the actual cause of abuse—sexism.

We must build a movement that stands against sexual violence and opposes any attempts to harness anger for a racist agenda.