(HuffPost) Home secretary Priti Patel has ordered officials to explain what has happened to a long-awaited review into the ethnicity of grooming gangs, HuffPost UK has learnt.
A frustrated Patel has been met with “obfuscation” from Home Office officials when asking about the probe, which campaigners believe is crucial in tackling child abuse and helping the fight against far-right racism.
Her predecessor Sajid Javid ordered the review in July 2018 amid concerns about gangs of mainly Pakistani-heritage men carrying out child sexual exploitation (CSE). But the Home Office was later accused of holding up the work and faced criticism for insisting it would remain internal.
Patel assumed the review would be prioritised as Javid, whose parents were from Pakistan, gave several high-profile interviews after ordering the probe in which he said the abuse made him “feel angry,” and that the men had “disgraced our heritage.”
