MP who first blew whistle on child rape gangs was smeared as a racist, says son

Independent

5 hours ago

The son of a former Labour MP who was the first to raise the alarm about child rape gangs more than 20 years ago has described how she was smeared and attacked for being a racist, particularly by members of her own party.
John Cryer, a former MP who now sits in the House of Lords, highlighted the backlash endured by his mother Ann when she blew the whistle on the scandal in 2003.
Labour peer Lord Cryer said those who were complicit at the time and knew of the child abuse by a group of older men from the Pakistani community, but chose to cover it up, should face prosecution.
He was speaking after a nationwide inquiry was announced by the Prime Minister into grooming gangs following a major review by Baroness Casey.
Her report, published on Monday, found the ethnicity of perpetrators had been 'shied away from', with data not recorded for two-thirds of offenders.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper claimed officials had dodged the issue of ethnicity among the groups of sex offenders for fear of being called racist, even though available data showed suspects were disproportionately likely to be Asian men.
The Government has accepted all 12 recommendations made by Lady Casey, including the establishment of a national inquiry.
Mrs Cryer was MP for Keighley when she was alerted to the problem in her constituency by a group of concerned mothers, who said their young daughters were being sexually exploited by a group of older Asian men and the police and social services were refusing to act.
After going public she faced accusations that she was a racist and also received threatening notes and phone calls, leading police to install a panic alarm in her house.
She stood down as an MP in 2010.
In the years since, a series of high-profile grooming scandals have been exposed, including in Rotherham and Rochdale.
All followed a similar pattern with the large-scale exploitation of mainly white girls by groups of men of predominantly Pakistani heritage, which the authorities failed to tackle.
Responding to a ministerial statement on the Casey review, Lord Cryer said: 'I rise to speak principally because the first person who raised the issue of the rape gangs, in other words the first whistleblower, happens to be my mum, Ann Cryer MP, who started raising this in 2003.
'She was then smeared and attacked, particularly by Labour figures, I've got to say, for being a racist.
'I'm not talking about ministers in the then government, many of whom actually supported her, and in the case of David Blunkett, as then home secretary, went out of his way to make sure that prosecutions happened, which they did.
'I'm talking about councillors, councils and other institutions who went on the attack and lied and smeared about the rape gangs.'
He added: 'I think some of them were complicit. Some of them knew it was going on, and they decided to cover up.
'And in those cases, if there is evidence to that fact, then they should be brought before the courts and prosecuted.'
In reply, Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint said: 'Can I pay tribute to his mother. I served in Parliament with Ann and I know she raised these matters and faced extreme difficulties locally as result, and took a very brave stand at that time.'
Stressing the need to address the issue, he added: 'My party hasn't been in government for 14 years, but we have been in control of some of the councils.
'My party wasn't in control of government when a lot of these issues happened, but I have still got a responsibility to look at making sure we deal with these in an effective way.'
Earlier, he told peers other recommendations made by Lady Casey would be implemented 'in very short order'.
These included making it mandatory to collect ethnicity and nationality data of all suspects in child sexual abuse cases, a change in the law so all adult sex with under-16s would be considered rape, and a review of the criminal records of exploitation victims.