How Ayoub Khan MP is Misrepresenting the Grooming Gang Scandal

Independent Muslim MP Ayoub Khan was elected on a pro-Gaza platform last July. He is now denying the ethnic and religious makeup of Britain's Pakistani rape gangs. The data says otherwise.

Ayoub Khan MP told a room in Birmingham of fellow Pakistanis, lobbying to build an airport in Mirpur, Pakistan, that the grooming gang scandal is a "false right-wing narrative ... done in order to sow division".

When reached by GB News for comment, Khan said:

"When you have right-wing media and GMB News [sic] attacking MPs, it's not because they are right, it's because they seek to cause division."

In response, Khan told GB News: "I strongly disagree with the suggestion that acknowledging the political misuse of grooming gang narratives amounts to either naivety or malice.

"Let me be clear - any and all forms of child sexual exploitation are abhorrent and must be confronted with zero tolerance.

"My argument, made in good faith, is that we must resist selectively focusing on certain ethnic or religious groups, particularly Muslims or British Pakistanis, when the data simply does not support that they are uniquely culpable.

"In 2020, the Home Office itself published a review into group-based child sexual exploitation which concluded that 'there is no credible evidence that this type of offending is more prevalent among Asian or Muslim communities'.

"In fact, most group-based offenders in the UK are white men. But the national conversation continues to be dominated by high-profile cases involving British Pakistani men, often used as a vehicle by the far right to stoke division, distrust, and Islamophobia.

"This isn't about denying the lived experiences of victims. It's about addressing all perpetrators equally - and ensuring that justice isn't hijacked by political narratives that serve agendas rather than truth.

"If the real concern is justice for survivors, then let's look at the bigger picture: according to NSPCC and police data, the majority of child sex abuse is committed by white men, often in family or institutional settings, not 'grooming gangs'.

"Yet the term 'grooming gang' has become racialised shorthand - too often synonymous with Muslim men - and that is both dangerous and inaccurate.

"We must also ask why so many survivors, regardless of ethnicity, struggle to be heard. Systemic failures in policing, social services, and institutional cultures of disbelief are the root of that. Shifting the blame to a community deflects from these failings.

"So no, recognising that the grooming gang narrative has been weaponised by sections of the right is not naive - it's necessary.

"Because if we want real justice for victims, we must tackle exploitation wherever it occurs, without prejudice or political opportunism."

Thousands of English girls have been raped by gangs of Pakistani Muslim men, but Khan blamed white men for these crimes instead.

Here’s why he is wrong.