Exclusive: White and Mersey Pensioners slam Carden for dog-whistle ‘grooming gang’ posturing

Liverpool left legend who made Keir Starmer freeze in the headlights has a few words for Walton MP

Audrey White, the Liverpool left-winger who terrified Keir Starmer into paralysis when she gave him a few pieces of her mind, in a Liverpool cafe, about his betrayal of Labour members, working-class people and their representative Jeremy Corbyn, has written as secretary of the radical Merseyside Pensioners’ Association (MPA), after a vote by the MPA, to Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden.

In an open letter, the MPA expresses its fury and disgust at Carden’s recent public comments playing to the demand of the far-right for a public inquiry into so-called ‘grooming gangs’ sexually abusing children and young people. The far-right, of course, means ‘Muslim grooming gangs’ and ignores the fact that many instances of organised child abuse are by white gangs.

Carden played neatly into the far-right narrative by claiming that the issue requires a challenge to the ‘orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism‘, as if such behaviour only exists among ‘other’ cultures – and compounded this with a statement to the Liverpool Echo that:

It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial or cultural issues or because victims were poor and working class.

Dan Carden.

His comments so pleased far-right Islamophobia totem Elon Musk that Musk praised and thanked Carden for his ‘integrity’. But they outraged the MPA, which has now written the following in an open letter to him about his ‘disgraceful’ rhetoric:

To Dan Carden MP,

When you first came cap in hand to the Merseyside Pensioners Association in 2017 to ask for support in standing as the Labour candidate for Liverpool Walton, we were enthusiastic that you as the son of a much respected trade unionist could represent the people of Walton under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. In a series of articles you are now being touted as the poster boy for Blue Labour. Our association agreed to send this open letter to you in response to your comments about the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal printed in Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper, The Liverpool Echo and other journals.

Open letter from Merseyside Pensioners Association

For the attention of MP Dan Carden,

The sight of you posing for a broadsheet photo spread as some kind of ‘truth-teller,’ while merely parroting the same hackneyed talking points about multiculturalism heard from the Reform Party or countless ten a penny culture-warriors on YouTube – never mind your unmistakable glee at being recognised by Elon Musk (perhaps the most outwardly xenophobic man on the internet) – encapsulates just how far you have fallen beneath the expectations of those who supported and helped get you elected in Liverpool.

Despite trying to cloak your statement with a nod to the class nature of sexual exploitation, the use of your narrative helps no one, especially not the young girls and children who have been failed by every service that should have protected them.

Much like Andy Burnham and others on the right of the party, it is clear you see the furore around these crimes as an opportunity to further your own career, whilst taking no responsibility for the role austerity played in catalysing them – by leaving British youth grossly underserved and vulnerable. A policy, it’s worth mentioning, which was maintained and supported – with obscene appetite – by your own party.

Numerous reports into the ‘grooming gangs’ phenomena have been produced over the years, yet little action has been taken to implement their recommendations and protect children. It may be difficult to see from the bubble of Westminster, but working class children are a low priority in Britain and have been for decades. They aren’t protected and society has failed them. Ask yourself where are the children’s facilities in your area? Many areas don’t have a serviceable playground, youth centre, swimming pool, playing field or even a library. In fact nowhere to go and nothing to do that is affordable. Compare this to other countries across Europe – with smaller GDP – and the neglect and failure of our political establishment (of which you are now clearly well and truly ensconced) is writ large.

Furthermore, not only has Labour continued with Tory policies in government, it has introduced new vicious ones of its own – targeting children, the poor and the vulnerable – driving more families into poverty, while cutting vital services that would help the victims you profess to have compassion for. For example, at the same time it’s been reported that there’s an “epidemic” of violence against women and girls, Labour is imposing cuts to rape crisis centres (where 25% of victims are children).

You say you are shocked that those in power failed to act, but perhaps it is the case that workers on the front-line are understaffed and under-resourced, following over a decade of year-on-year cuts – which Labour did little to oppose and are now seemingly happy to continue with in government?

Predictably, your narrative is a distraction from the decades of neo-liberal social neglect imposed by parties like your own – choosing to focus instead on amorphous Faragist talking points like “multiculturalism” whilst neglecting to offer any real solutions that would help the disadvantaged in need of protection.

The current moral panic around ‘grooming gangs’ focuses on the ethnicity of the perpetrators, and ignores ethnicity when it doesn’t fit the narrative – as in the recently prosecuted case in Glasgow where the perpetrators were inconveniently all white. You dismiss Ministry of Justice figures that show ‘88% of defendants prosecuted in 2022 (across England and Wales) were white’ and that South Asian defendants accounted for 7%, lower than their representation in the general population. The majority of child abusers in the UK are white men, and those who choose to make this issue about race, reveal themselves to be without the ideas and courage needed to bring about the fundamental changes required to protect children.

By ludicrously claiming those who failed to act, including the police, did so because they were “gripped by fear….of unsettling community relations” flies in the face of decades of a ‘stop & search’ policy which disproportionately targeted black and brown youth, and where the police never demonstrated such sensitivities.

Disgracefully the rhetoric you have added to will continue to increase the rate of racism and violent attacks on the Pakistani/Asian community. Moreover our children have the right to be safe and free from the poverty you and your party’s policies continue to create.

It’s about time you had some honesty Dan, and admitted that you have firmly ditched the socialist policies that got you elected in the first place and that Labour is no longer a party of labour. It is your party’s long-standing betrayal of the working class which is driving people into the arms of Farage, Trump and Musk etc – ironically whose ideas you now seem so eager to embrace.

If you see your unlikely path to re-election as flirting with a Reform-lite agenda – we remind you – voters can always vote for the real thing. Just as we on the Left will vote for real socialists come the next election, not Blue Labour.

Admin for Merseyside Pensioners Association

Mr Carden was contacted for comment but did not reply by the time of writing.

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