Ex Labour home secretary said politicians had duty to raise such issues. But said there was a ‘polite society’ meaning they were not talked about. Former Labour MP Ann Cryer raised similar concerns in the interview. Said hard to raise issue of grooming by Asians without being called racist.
Jack Straw has said ‘a lot of white politicians’ prefer to keep silent about the segregation of our communities for fear of being dubbed racist.
The former Labour home secretary said it was the responsibility of politicians to get such issues out in the open, but said there was a ‘polite society’ which meant that such issues are not talked about.
And Ann Cryer, the former Labour MP for Keighley, said it had been difficult for her to raise the issue of grooming by Asian men in her West Yorkshire constituency ‘without being called a racist’.
She said friends of hers in the Labour Party had known about the abuse for years, but said nothing about it.
The two politicians made their comments on a documentary to be screened on Thursday and presented by Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
It comes days after Mr Philllips said in an article that Britain is silencing debate on race issues by ‘intimidating’ those who dare to ask questions.
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