A leading detective in the Rochdale child grooming scandal has backed a Labour<\/a> MP who quit the shadow cabinet after facing a backlash for claiming Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping white girls.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah Champion resigned as shadow women and equalities secretary and apologised for her \u201cextremely poor choice of words\u201d after warning of a \u201cproblem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls\u201d in a column for The Sun.<\/span><\/p>\n But Maggie Oliver, who persuaded young girls who were being sexually abused in Rochdale to speak to police<\/a>, leading to nine gang members being jailed in 2012, said Ms Champion\u2019s remarks were not racist.<\/span><\/p>\n Eight of the Rochdale gang were British Pakistani and the issue has been thrust to the top of the agenda again following the convictions of 17 men and one woman over the sexual abuse of under-age girls in Newcastle.<\/span><\/p>\n The majority of the offenders in the Newcastle case were from a Muslim background across Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish communities.<\/span><\/p>\n But Ms Oliver said Ms Champion was right to focus on British Pakistanis while stressing that not all men from that background are abusive.<\/span><\/p>\n Monday is the 3 year anniversary of Jay report into Rotherham that exposed the scale of child sexual exploitation https:\/\/t.co\/jTMr4adkGZ<\/a><\/p>\n — Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) August 18, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n