Keir Starmer is 'all soundbites and no substance' on grooming gangs, Danczuk tells GB News

GB News

Former Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk has warned Sir Keir Starmer risks being "all soundbites and no substance" if he fails to deport a grooming gang leader still living in Britain.Speaking to GB News, Danczuk recalled campaigning for one of the gang's leaders, Qari Abdul Rauf, to be deported to Pakistan back in 2014.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Neighbours in Rochdale say they feel unsafe as a grooming gang,

00:04a rape gang leader convicted of child rape.

00:07A paedophile continues to live freely on their street

00:10more than a decade after his sentencing.

00:14Despite a deportation order, he remains in the UK due to a legal loophole

00:18and has now reportedly has a police protection at his home,

00:23where, of course, none of the survivors get any such VIP treatment.

00:27I'm joined in the studio by the former Rochdale MP,

00:30Simon Danzok.

00:31Simon, welcome to the show.

00:33This case simply beggars belief.

00:35It just seems to me we've completely lost sight of who the actual victims are.

00:40This individual has full protection, partying the night away,

00:44and those he rapes and abused have to be re-traumatised by this story

00:47every single waking day.

00:49Yes, absolutely.

00:50This rape gang leader is laughing at British justice and at the victims,

00:54there's no doubt about that.

00:55He got a paltry two and a half years.

00:57That's how long he served for raping children.

01:00I mean, let that settle in.

01:01That's the little amount of time that he actually did.

01:05And he's still out there.

01:07He's living in the community.

01:08The victims are traumatised by the fact that he's around in the community.

01:13The neighbours are not happy about it.

01:15He's partying away.

01:16He's got a happy family life, by all accounts,

01:20and yet the victims are being ignored.

01:22He's got police protection, as you point out,

01:24and yet the victims are not even thought of by the authorities.

01:28This can't be right in terms of British justice.

01:31And in terms of that legal loophole, we hear all the time, don't we,

01:34about how people suddenly decide they're not Pakistani.

01:37They suddenly decide, no, I'm not a citizen of Pakistan anymore,

01:41tear up my passport.

01:42It renders the British state toothless,

01:44and it precipitates situations like this

01:46where convicted paedophiles are back among the communities

01:49that they so obviously violated.

01:52Yeah, absolutely.

01:53And you'll recall I was the MP for Rochdale from 2010 to 2017,

01:57and I campaigned for this individual to be sent back to Pakistan.

02:02I campaigned heavily.

02:04Theresa May was the Home Secretary at the time.

02:06I lobbied her personally about this very issue.

02:102014, we got a ruling that he should be sent back.

02:13He appealed it using legal aid,

02:15so the taxpayer were funding him to appeal this issue.

02:192018, we got a ruling again that he should be sent back to Pakistan.

02:23But then, as you point out, he ripped up his passport,

02:27his Pakistani passport, and they're not accepting him on that basis.

02:31That can't be right.

02:32Whatever, we have to put pressure on Pakistan.

02:35We need David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to be saying to Pakistan,

02:39if you don't take these individuals back,

02:41we will stop all foreign aid and we will stop visas.

02:45There'll be no travel between the two countries until you take this person back.

02:49It's a common sense idea, which means it probably won't happen.

02:53And instead, the Pakistani authorities are actually trying to horse trade

02:57to reopen an airline route between Pakistan and the United Kingdom,

03:02one that was closed in the past because it was deemed a terrorist.

03:05They're trying to bargain for the deportation of paedophiles.

03:09They actually want something back from us.

03:11A strong government would tell them to go whistle.

03:12Yeah, absolutely.

03:13We should tell them to go and whistle.

03:15They're trying to get Pakistan International Airlines,

03:17PIA, going between London and Islamabad.

03:22That's not what we want anyway, not least on safety grounds as well.

03:27So we shouldn't be bargaining on this.

03:29But, you know, Starmer in recent days has been talking tough on this very issue.

03:33Well, the test is here.

03:35If Starmer doesn't send this paedophile back to Pakistan,

03:39then Starmer is all soundbites and no substance.

03:43Do you think that the rape gang inquiry, when it gets going,

03:46it has to make a specific point of deportation of these foreign monsters,

03:52has to be, has to be enshrined in any new deal.

03:56Otherwise, we have a mockery, situations like this,

03:58where we literally have paedophiles living in the same communities as their victims.

04:02Yeah, and some of them have been returned.

04:05That's the good news.

04:06But not this individual and not a number of other individuals.

04:10That has to change.

04:11If this Labour government is serious about tackling this issue,

04:14then this will be the test.

04:16Return this particular paedophile,

04:18and if you don't, you're not taking the issue seriously.

04:21Simon Danzig, thanks for coming to see us today on the CDO.

04:23I appreciate your time.

04:24I sincerely do.

04:25Former Rochdale MP Simon Danzig, thank you.

04:28Appreciate it.

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