A victim of a Pakistani child rape grooming gang joined Nigel Farage and Reform UK to demand a national public inquiry into the abuse of young girls in Britain and the failures of authorities to protect them.
Elizabeth Harper, the author of Snatched, in which she recounted her abuse at the hands of a Rotherham child rape gang in the early 2000s, accused the South Yorkshire Police, local authorities, and social service officials of ignoring the sexual exploitation committed against her and others by Pakistani-heritage men in the area.
Speaking before Reform UK’s North West England Conference in Chester on Saturday, Ms Harper added her voice to the growing chorus demanding the government finally hold a national public inquiry into the scandal.
“We need proper data on the motives and the drivers of the perpetrators involved,” she said. “We need the data on the ethnicity of these perpetrators, and we need action and change. This is a must, not only for people just like me, but for those children that may be suffering now and in the future.”
Harper told the crowd that her abuse began at the age of 14 when a woman lured her to a property where she was locked up for 10 weeks and sexually abused by a group of Pakistani men. She said that during this time, the South Yorkshire Police were “fully aware” of what was happening, saying that they were given “high-level intelligence” about the existence of grooming gangs in the area “from at least seven years prior”.
The victim said that during her horrific ordeal, the local police not only refused to arrest her abusers but even arrested her father after he tried to rescue her.
“I often think how horrendous it is that the only adult at that time who was made accountable for my abuse was my dad, the only one that was trying to save me. My abuse carried on for four and a half years, right under the eye of those that needed to protect us, protect me, ” she said.
Mr Farage hailed Ms Harper as “brave” for coming forward and giving an account of her abuse.
“It is beggar’s belief that the Prime Minister has denied brave victims like Elizabeth Harper the inquiry this country needs to stop this kind of race-based sexual abuse of our young children,” he said.
While the left-wing Labour government has claimed that previous localised or generalised sex abuse inquiries are sufficient, Mr Farage argued that there needs to be a focused “rifle shot” inquiry into Pakistani gangs, in particular, sexually abusing young white girls.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has claimed that such an investigation would take up to seven years to complete, forced MPs within his party this week, many of whom represent constituencies where grooming gang abuse took place, to vote against a national public inquiry.
However, the Reform boss said that an inquiry could be completed within nine months and that if the government fails to launch a public inquiry by the end of the month, his party will launch and fund an independent investigation.
The Labour government has come under increasing pressure to end its intransigence. For example, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, one of the country’s top Labour politicians, joined the call for an inquiry this week.
The public also overwhelmingly supports a national investigation. A YouGov survey this week found that 76 per cent of the public backs an inquiry into grooming gangs, with just 13 per cent in opposition.
Leftist UK Labour Party Blocks Vote for Inquiry Into Muslim Child Rape Grooming Gangshttps://t.co/oAep0arcRx
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