Children’s Minister Edward Timpson called for the Pakistani community to root out paedophiles in its midst.

But is the Pakistani commuity in 'collective denial'? and why have other MP's quickly backed up such views?

Mr Timpson told a Commons inquiry into street grooming that in the past there had not been ‘robust investigations’ into such offences because of ‘cultural sensitivities’ or political correctness’.

Politicians have failed to discuss this type of crime sensitively.

Jack Straw MP, for instance made comments on BBC Newsnight's about how some British Pakistani men are “fizzing and popping with testosterone” and see white girls as “easy meat”.

On BBC radio 4 last year he also said “There is an issue of ethnicity here which can’t be ignored, and that is an issue which has to be faced and addressed within the Asian community about what’s going on there.

"That kind of leads to a sense of denial by them that all this is going on. These are small communities so people will have a rough idea that people are abusing white girls in this way”.

Mr Straw’s (who was Home Secretary at the time) own brother was convicted in 2000 of indecent assault on girl, aged 16 – so it is surprising that he doesn’t understand that families and communities don’t always know when criminal activity is taking place under their very nose.

What is also worrying is this notion of ‘collective responsibility’ for members of the Asian community, would the same be asked of white British people?

Would they be accused of having a sense of ‘denial’ or that they will have a ‘rough idea’ when abuse is going on in their communities?

There is a suggestion of there being some kind of conspiracy of silence within the Asian community, that somehow we all know when young girls are being abused and that we somehow ‘close ranks’.

Could you imagine this being said to any other community? No because it would never happen, there would be outrage and rightly so.

Another thing, Pakistani sex offenders don’t go around advertising their crimes to the families or community elders, just like white British paedophiles don’t go round advertising their crimes to their families or communities. Why on earth would they?

Provocative statements by politicians’ only fuel far right groups, after Jack Straw’s comments on white girls being seen as “easy meat” by some British Pakistani men, the British National Party (BNP) came out with the offensive slogan “Our children are not halal meat”.

I am sure that an experienced politician such as Jack Straw would be horrified to think his statements may have inspired the BNP’s slogan, which is why he needs to choose his words more carefully next time, especially when dealing with a sensitive issue such as race.

Child Abuse is not an Asian issue - child abuse is committed by people of all races and religions, and most child abusers in Britain are white.

Although a disproportionate number of Asian men have come to trial for grooming, they represent a tiny fraction of Britain’s Asian population. Just fifty out of a total UK population of 1.2 million British Pakistanis have been convicted of this crime.