Four local councils have reportedly endorsed a national motion to classify the term “Asian grooming gangs” as Islamophobic.
Oxford, Newcastle, Manchester, and Calderdale councils are expected to back a report claiming the phrase perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Islam.
The report, produced by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Muslims, states: “The term ‘Asian grooming gangs’ [promotes] age-old stereotypes and tropes about Islam [of] sexual profligacy and paedophilia, or Islam and violence… [they] heighten the vulnerability of Muslims to hate crimes.”
According to The Times, the government has put the report forward for further discussion.
Earlier this week, MPs rejected a Conservative bid to push for another national inquiry into grooming gangs.
The controversy reignited after Elon Musk accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the crimes” of child sex offenders during his time as chief prosecutor. Musk also targeted Home Office Minister Jess Phillips, labelling her a “rape genocide apologist.”
Sir Keir shot back that the Twitter boss was “spreading lies and misinformation”and other European leaders criticised Mr Musk attempting to “intervene directly in elections”.
Nevertheless, minister Alex Davies-Jones has called for “less talk and more action”on the issue. Professor Alexis Jay previously led a seven year inquiry into the issue, which found in 2014 that 1,400 children “at a conservative estimate” had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
Professor Jay said victims “clearly want action” and that the time has passed for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs.
The shunning of the “Asian grooming gang” phrase could be seen to not over associate one race with the crime, considering that 85 per cent of “group-based” child abusers were white in the first three quarters of 2024.
However, the move has been criticised by others, including shadow home secretary Chris Philp – who pointed out that Oxford, Newcastle, Manchester and Calderdale are all areas where young white girls have been raped.
He said: “It’s bad enough to hear these ideas coming from the Labour Party, but it is an insult to the victims that the very same councils who covered up these appalling crimes are attempting to manipulate the definition of Islamophobia to make it forbidden to even talk about the rape gangs.
“This proposed definition of Islamophobia is obviously dangerous. It risks the persecution of people who tell the truth about issues like the rape gangs.”
Mr Musk has claimed that more than a million children have been victims of “grooming gangs” in the UK. A precise number has not been found but the one million figure has previously been debunked.
Calderdale is where 20 men were convicted of exploiting four girls in the area and handed sentences totalling more than 200 years.
Its borough council said: “[We take] the safeguarding of children and young people very seriously. All allegations of child sexual exploitation made to the council are investigated thoroughly.”