Diane Abbott repeats debunked claims that rape gangs are majority-white

"Some media only 'care' about certain perpetrators, some politicians talk as if they are the only perpetrators. The facts are very different."

The "facts" the ex-Shadow Home Secretary referenced showed how 88 per cent of convicted child sex offenders are white.

Abbott's figures did not specify group-based child sex abuse - or "grooming gangs".

As rising star Tory MP Katie Lam pointed out in May, "this is unsurprising; the majority of people in this country are white".

"Statistics include historic offences, which will have been committed when the population was more white than it is now," Lam added.

While Yvette Cooper yesterday told MPs: "I warned in January that the data collection we inherited from the previous Government on ethnicity was completely inadequate; the data was collected on only 37 per cent of suspects.

"Baroness Casey's audit confirms that ethnicity data is not recorded for two thirds of grooming gang perpetrators, and that the data is 'not good enough to support any statements about the ethnicity of group-based child sexual exploitation offenders at the national level.'"

READ MORE FOLLOWING THE CASEY REPORT:

• Nigel Farage demands rape gangs answers after warning of Casey report ‘cover-up’
• WATCH: Baroness Casey reveals reason behind calls for national inquiry
• Baroness Casey says authorities 'do not look hard enough' in tackling grooming gangs

Minutes after Abbott's social media post, Casey herself told the Home Affairs Select Committee that grooming gangs data is "incomplete and unreliable."

She warned that data collection on grooming gang ethnicities is "incomplete and unreliable... and that's putting it mildly" - and has issued a warning to those outside the committee against drawing false conclusions from the figures.

"Let's just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and draw from it," she added.

Casey's comments came just hours after she told GB News that she was "angry" about the lack of data on ethnicity.

GROOMING GANGS - READ MORE:

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• REVEALED: The nine Labour bigwigs who blasted ‘far-right’ calls to hold rape gangs probe - from Keir Starmer to Sadiq Khan
• Grooming gangs survivor breaks down in tears as she casts doubt on national inquiry: 'I have no faith in it'

She said: "I'm angry myself that for the last decade plus, we haven't collected this type of ethnicity data to say, is it or isn't it a national problem?"

Casey also warned that this data gap "leads to people running amok with the fact they think there are cover ups and this and that."

The peer said she simply wanted to know "what's going on so I can understand the threat, then you can work out how to stop it."

Casey, compiling her landmark report, had examined local police data to understand the scale of the rape gang scandal - including records from Greater Manchester Police, West Yorkshire Police and Operation Stonewood.

In these three datasets, she found that "Asian-heritage or Pakistani-heritage men are disproportionately represented" in group-based child sexual exploitation cases.