The former Conservative party chair Sayeeda Warsi has said she has warned her father not to walk home alone from the mosque, fearing a backlash against British Muslims from what she termed “racist rhetoric” from the home secretary, Suella Braverman.
Lady Warsi told BBC News that she was concerned about the language used by Braverman about small boats and about grooming gangs.
In one comment that caused particular alarm, Braverman said groups of “vulnerable white English girls” were being “pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse networks”.
Braverman also said separately that grooming gangs had a predominance of “British Pakistani males, who hold cultural values totally at odds with British values,” and said police and social services had “turned a blind eye to these signs of abuse out of political correctness and out of fear of being called racist”.
Warsi, who described Braverman’s comments as racist last week, told the BBC on Thursday that she was concerned about the consequences of such language.
“I’ve had to warn my son that if people start swearing and shouting, to just remove himself from the situation to avoid it escalating into an attack. Why should I be having these conversations with my son?” she said.
“I’ve had to tell my dad if you go to the mosque, don’t walk home. We need to have someone taking him and bringing him back every day.”
She added: “If you look at the interviews she did, she gave no caveats. Ms Braverman basically said group sexual exploitation is a British Pakistani problem. At no point in those interviews did she say it was a small minority of British Pakistanis committing these crimes.
“Suella Braverman needs to understand that when she opens her mouth she’s speaking as a home secretary. She can’t use loose language. This kind of ‘shock jock’ language is becoming a pattern with her. It feels like she is more interested in the rhetoric and the noise of creating a culture war than the actual job.”
Writing separately in the Guardian, Warsi said the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, should intervene. “I do not believe Sunak shares Braverman’s extreme views,” she wrote. “In his own statement on government plans to tackle child sexual exploitation, he did not use the same language as Braverman and looked uncomfortable when questioned about it.
“But as head of the party, the responsibility stops with him. As the first prime minister from an ethnic minority background, he should not want to be remembered for presiding over a government that engaged in racist rhetoric.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary has been clear that all despicable child abusers must be brought to justice. And she will not shy away from telling hard truths, particularly when it comes to the grooming of young women and girls in Britain’s towns who have been failed by authorities over decades.
“As the home secretary has said, the vast majority of British Pakistanis are law-abiding, upstanding citizens but independent reports were unequivocal that in towns like Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford cultural sensitivities have meant thousands of young girls were abused under the noses of councils and police.
“That’s why we have announced a raft of measures, including a new police taskforce and mandatory reporting, to ensure this horrific scandal can never happen again, and bring members of grooming gangs to justice for the victims.”
