Did Nazir Afzal say on radio .............

Today's offering comes from Politicalite

The headline screams ....

"GORDON Brown’s Labour Government allegedly urged Police Forces across the UK ‘not to investigate’ grooming gangs."

So I thought that's a bit strange coming on the back of Brown having a go at Farage something doesn't look right.  Hmmm.

The heading immediately throws up warning bells with the word "allegedly" so basically this is rumor and hearsay because if they had any evidence they wouldn't need to cover themselves with the word  "allegedly".

Lets have a look at who Politicalite.com are, the support us page claims ....

Politicalite is the truly independent news site that reports the unreported news by the people, for the people, but we’re under attack by the Establishment who are trying to censor real news written by the people, for the people.

and

Britains most censored news outlet 

The search bar at the top of the page contains individual links to Tommy and Farage, along with Trump, Tories, Labour, Brexit etc.  and from searching the content we can safely say Politicalite.com supports Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and Trump. Also Politicalite.com link to therebel.media

A quick google search of  "is Politicalite.com a fake news site" gets quite a few hits but would need further investigation.  The site doesn't appear on the wikipedia list of fake websites. On that basis I will work on the principle that we are undecided at present whether Politicalite.com promotes fake news, as I want to stick with the main Gordon Brown story.

A further search revealed that someone had already done a freedom of information request. Child grooming - circular to Police Forces in 2008 the home office replied We have not been able to identify any circular which includes the statement in your request.  click the link for the full document.
The document also links to the national archives Home office circulars 2008 and the only documents i can find from 2008 are
The duties and powers of the police under The Children Act 1989

Which doesn't mention anything about young girls sexual behavior as alleged on Politicalite by Nazir Afzal a former Chief Prosecutor for North West England.

“as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for you police officers to get involved in.”

I also searched the 2007 archive and the 2009 archive, but found nothing.

So I searched for Nazir Afzal to find out who he is and he was indeed Chief Prosecutor in North West England from 2011 to 2015 and does appear to be a very respected individual.

A search on the actual comment made found these

mayor of London- questions to the Mayor November 22, 2018 - Ref: 2018/3142  basically just saying unable to identify the Home Office circular from 2008 referred to nor the letter in question.

and

https://www.westmercia.police: FOI 10695 and 10696 2008 Grooming Circular  the answer was similar "No specific recorded information held"

So whilst being a very respectable individual one has to question did he actually make the statement that is being claimed or has the comment been altered to serve a narrative. The majority of sites reporting it are definitely dubious. 

Its stated that Nazir Afzal made the comment when he was  interviewed very briefly on the Radio 4 PM programme on 19th October.   Altnewsmedia goes on to say ....."In the interview he made a quite astonishing claim which does not seem to have received the publicity it deserves so we thought it worth publicizing here. He said (@34minutes):"  

Unfortunately the link goes to a Sorry, the page you are looking for cannot be found!
I run another search for Nazir Afzal radio program Radio 4 PM programme on 19th October. That search came up with an interview of 1 minute and is the correct date https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06pbs8q
Altnewsmedia states "he was interviewed very briefly" but then claims, the astonishing claim was made at 34mins. 34 minutes is not a brief interview.

So I'm starting to smell bullshite here.

In the International Business Times Nazir Afzal writes the article himself but the claim here is different.

"The term "child prostitute" was used to describe victims and the Home Office in a circular to police in 2008 used that term and spoke of girls making an "informed choice" to engage in this behaviour"

No mention of an instruction saying that police shouldn't get involved.

Another comment from the article was ....

The term "child prostitute" was used extensively to describe them and it should be noted both that the Home Office in a circular to police in 2008 used that term and spoke of girls making an "informed choice" to engage in this behaviour. Parliament only finally removed the term from all laws a couple of years ago.

I still cannot find any relating circular and a search of the words "informed Choice" finds nothing on https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Nazir Afzal goes on to say in the International Business Times article ....

Following the case, everyone including the prime minister chose to respond to the lessons learnt. I was commended in parliament and in the media, but the reaction of the far right to me was very different. The BBC film doesn't show this at my request.

The far right narrative was and is very simple – "all these minorities attacking our white children." The inconvenient fact that I, the Birmingham born son of an immigrant family that were catering contractors for the British Army for two generations, was the prosecutor who helped bring them to justice, damaged that narrative, I guess.

However, they began circulating messages online falsely suggesting that I was behind the earlier decisions not to prosecute. I only came to the north west in 2011, but fake news took hold. I was then subjected to thousands of letters and emails to my office, to the prime minister and even to President Barack Obama calling for me to be sacked and deported. The thugs held a demonstration outside my home, and because of threats to harm me a panic alarm was placed in my home with additional security, including police patrols. My children had to go to school by taxi. Nick Griffin and BNP TV door-stepped me outside my office.

SOAPBOX COMMENT
I have not been able to find any evidence of  Nazir Afzal saying what is claimed ie ....

“as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for you police officers to get involved in.”

In the brief radio interview mentioned on Altnewsmedia he doesn't say anything about it. and the closest I can find to it is.

"The term "child prostitute" was used to describe victims and the Home Office in a circular to police in 2008 used that term and spoke of girls making an "informed choice" to engage in this behaviour"

Therefore in the absence of any supporting evidence I would have to conclude that the accusation ....

"GORDON Brown’s Labour Government allegedly urged Police Forces across the UK ‘not to investigate’ grooming gangs."

Is pure rumor and hearsay

Soapbox Rating: BOLLOX

Update 15/07/19

A recording of Nazir Afzal saying 

“as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for you police officers to get involved in.”

has been posted on YouTube, in case that video is taken down I have a copy but for the present will link to it. Many thanks to the person that posted it in the comments.

The relevant quote is at 2:02.

Lets update the facts we have

• We've now confirmed that Nazir Afzal did say the quote about the Home Office circular to police in 2008.
• What would be great to have now is a copy of the actual circular, otherwise we just have one person's word for what actually happened however respectable that person appears to be.
• So did the home office issue the circular as Nazir Afzal claims ?
• If they did why is the no record of it?
• 
  

Soapbox Rating: (Changed to) Further investigation Needed

If you have any information that would help in the accuracy of this blog please comment and I'll update. 

LINKS
Politicalite.com: GORDON Brown’s Labour Government allegedly urged Police Forces across the UK ‘not to investigate’ grooming gangs.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/child_grooming_circular_to_polic
altnewsmedia: THE ‘INFORMED CHOICES’ OF YOUNG GIRLS
webarchive.nationalarchives: Home Office Circulars from 2008
webarchive.nationalarchives: home office circulars from 2007
webarchive.nationalarchives: home office circulars from 2009
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazir_Afzal
https://www.thersa.org/events/speakers/nazir-afzal
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmhaff/68/6803.htm
ibtimes.co.uk: Three Girls: I prosecuted the Rochdale child grooming gang - it wasn't about race
bbc.co.uk/programmes: Not about race or ethnicity 'it's the fact they're men'
https://www.therebel.media/


News sources checked
www.Politicalite.com           - Undecided
www.altnewsmedia.net        - https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/altnewsmedia-net/
https://www.therebel.media - https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-rebel/