On 24 October 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote a letter to four victims of grooming gangs. In his correspondence, the Prime Minister referred to the perpetrators as “Asian men”, a description that not only distorts the truth but also unjustly implicates an entire continent of over 4.2 billion people across more than 50 nations.
INSIGHT UK expresses deep concern over this continued use of the blanket term “Asian” to describe offenders who, in the overwhelming majority of grooming gang cases, have been identified as men of Pakistani-Muslim heritage. This terminology (‘Asian’), long criticised by victims, campaigners and community leaders, obscures the specific cultural and systemic issues that allowed such crimes to persist for decades.
The blanket term also omits the fact that other Asians, specifically Indians, Hindus and Sikhs have also been victims of these grooming gangs.
Language matters, especially when used by the country’s highest office to address burning issues of national and social importance.
To conflate an entire continent comprising over 50 countries and a population of over 4.2 billion people, with the actions of a specific group is both inaccurate and harmful. The political correctness and lack of courage to call out the perpetrators risks prejudice and incitement of hate against a large populace who are otherwise not responsible for any of this. It erases distinctions between diverse Asian communities, including Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Iranian, Nepalese and many others, who have no connection whatsoever to these crimes. Moreover, it hinders honest discussion, thereby obscuring the reasons at the root cause of these horrendous crimes against girls, preventing the development of effective policies and genuine accountability.
True justice for victims cannot be achieved through vague language or political caution.
Protecting the ethnic, religious and cultural identities of perpetrators must never take precedence over protecting victims. It not only betrays justice and closure for victims, their families, but also creates another wave of unsuspecting victims in generations ahead. For any society to move on after such multi-decadal trapping of vulnerable girls, it deserves to know the facts, however uncomfortable, in their totality, without dilution. Hence, the government’s first duty is to acknowledge the facts fully and transparently, without fear or favour, and to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.
INSIGHT UK calls upon the Prime Minister and the government to:
- Use precise and factual terminology when referring to grooming gang perpetrators.
- Acknowledge the specific community, religion and cultural factors that have perpetrated these crimes.
- Ensure that safeguarding policies address the root causes rather than concealing them under broad, misleading labels.
- Engage constructively with the British Hindu, Sikh, and other Asian communities who have also been victims and been wrongly associated with these crimes due to the derogatory use of the term “Asian.”
We stand, firstly and foremost, with the victims and hereafter with all communities unfairly stigmatised by imprecise language. Justice begins with truth, and truth begins with courage.
