In answer to a question about her plan to introduce mandatory reporting of child abuse, the Home Secretary said “in towns around England, and around the country vulnerable white girls, who have been living in troubled circumstances, in challenging situations have been abused, exploited, drugged, raped by networks of gangs of rapists. And we have to be honest about the fact that some of these gangs have been overwhelmingly British Pakistani males”.  In the ECU’s view, this provided no grounds for understanding the Home Secretary to be claiming that men of Pakistani origin were responsible for the majority of such abuse. 

In relation to the term “illegal migrants” the complainant argued that it was inaccurate on the grounds that it is legal for refugees to seek asylum in the UK and the UK is party to an international convention to that effect.  The ECU noted, however, that the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 had created the offence of illegal arrival and that the Act’s provisions, although some argue they conflict with the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention of 1951, had been upheld by the Court of Appeal in a recent series of test cases.

In neither instance was there inaccuracy or an occasion for challenge as to fact by Ms Kuenssberg.
Not Upheld