"Something has clearly gone wrong" for Leicester sweatshops to go unchecked

12 July 2020, 14:14

Maajid Nawaz on Leicester sweatshops and racism

The UK needs to clean up its act after the Leicester sweatshop scandal, police should not have to fear being accused of racism for enforcing the law.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is believed to think that the reason why Leicester sweatshops were never exposed was because the police feared being vilified for racism, as the warehouses are believed to be run by British Asians.

Maajid Nawaz agreed that this could very well be the case, and said this isn't a new phenomenon.

"The rise of Islamist extremism in this country was tolerated for so long because they thought it was our culture" he said.

Maajid went on to list the Rochester "grooming gangs" and homophobic protests outside schools as other examples of where police failed to intervene because they would be accused of racism.

After seeing this happen in the past, Maajid felt as though "it isn't too far of a leap that perhaps Priti Patel on this case is correct."

"What we do know is that seriously, it was illegal. Something has gone wrong to allow these sweatshops to continue in this way."

Maajid refused to think that this should be tolerated. He called on listeners to join him in saying "we've got to end this culture of political, economic and social corruption in our society" adding that "it is everywhere."

"The only way out of this is for us to clean our act up" he said, suggesting that the only way the UK can fight against further scandals like the ones seen in Leicester last week and Rochester in the past is to tackle the subject of racism and what constitutes it.