to reference Islam in relation to the pandemic of child sex grooming across the UK.

Unfortunately, the reference was to Islamophobia

To be fair, she got closer to identifying the problem than anyone so far and has acknowledged that fear of being branded racist has prevented people from coming forward.

*****

“On the news last night there was a picture of 18 men convicted and there was no comment that 17 of those were clearly Asian men. It just pains me that this is going on time and time and time again and the Government aren’t researching what is going on.

“We have got now, hundreds of Pakistani men who have been convicted of this crime, why are we not commissioning research to see what is going on and how we need to change what is going on."

Asked whether she herself would be attacked for her comments, Ms Champion replied: “Absolutely. The far-right will attack me for not doing enough and the floppy left will have a go at me for being a racist. But this isn’t racist, this is child protection. We need to be grown up about it and deal with it.