A LABOUR council leader has been suspended from the party after he called victims of grooming gangs “poor white trash from Rotherham”.
Dennis Jones, who lead Labour in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, quit his role as leader yesterday after previously making the vile comments to independent city councillor Daisy Blakemore-Creedon.
Paul MarriottDennis Jones has resigned after making comments to a fellow councillor about grooming gang victims[/caption]
Paul MarriottMr Jones had referred to grooming gang victims as ‘poor white trash from Rotherham’[/caption]
Daisy Blakemore-Creedon received the vile message in an exchange with Jones last month
The councillor shared a screenshot on social media of an exchange with Jones from August 8, in which he made the remark that left her “stunned”.
Jones has since “apologised wholeheartedly for the language”, which was widely slammed as “deeply offensive and unacceptable”, initially being suspended from Labour.
However, he resigned as leader with immediate effect yesterday, following the backlash, but will remain as an independent councillor.
Vast child abuse rings in Rotherham preyed on young white girls between from as early as the 1980s, before being exposed in 2012.
A series of articles revealed the vast scale of child protection failings in the town — saying the police and social services knew of but did little about the danger grooming gangs posed.
These investigations coincided with the conviction of 12 men of predominantly British-Pakistani heritage for running a vast child abuse ring in nearby Rochdale in May 2012.
It has also been claimed that victims of the grooming gangs were targeted by police officers, with five women alleging they were sexually abused by South Yorkshire cops.
Blakemoore-Creedon said that she and Jones had been “having a civil and respectful exchange” until he made the comment about grooming gang victims.
She told the BBC that Jones’ words “took me aback”, as if the “air had been sucked out of the conversation”.
The councillor added: “Since sharing this last night, I have had victims reach out to me directly. Their voices, their pain, and their courage confirm what I knew deep down: speaking out was the right thing to do.
“This isn’t about point-scoring or politics, it’s about people’s safety, dignity, and lived experiences. And no-one should ever feel silenced when those values are dismissed so casually.”
Jones has since clarified his message, saying: “With regard to the topic discussed, let me be absolutely clear: vile perpetrators of sexual abuse must face the full force of the law, and we must all continue to fight for victims of such abhorrent crimes to get the justice they deserve.”
In his apology, he added: “In trying to assert this view, I used language which some who wrongly dismiss or choose to ignore such evil crimes commonly use to minimise such criminality.
“In doing so, I was intending to discredit this completely wrong characterisation and highlight the need to stand up for victims of such crimes.
“I apologise wholeheartedly for some of the language used in these messages, which was clearly inappropriate, and for any offence I may have caused as a result.”
The Casey review, released earlier this year, linked illegal migration with the violence perpetrated against vulnerable girls by grooming gangs.
The report was commissioned to build a “national picture of what was known about current group-based child sexual exploitation” and to “identify local and national trends”.
Following its publication, authorities will now be forced to track the ethnicity of grooming predators after years of deliberately covering up the “over-representation” of Asian grooming gangs.
The damning report into the scandal laid bare the catastrophic failings of the British state to stop the abuse of white girls – and called for a national inquiry to “draw a line in the sand”.
‘DEEPLY OFFENSIVE AND UNACCEPTABLE’
Wayne Fitzgerald – the Tory group leader on Peterborough City Council – has slammed Jones’ remarks as “deeply offensive”.
He said: “Calling white working class girls white trash is deeply offensive and unacceptable.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party expects the highest standards from our members and our elected representatives.
“The language used here was inappropriate and swift action has been taken, in line with our rules and procedures. We cannot comment further while an investigation is ongoing.”
A spokesperson for Peterborough City Council said: “A formal complaint has been received by the council in relation to this and we are now considering its contents.
“An Extraordinary Full Council meeting will be called as soon as reasonably possible to appoint a new Council Leader.”
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