Former home secretary Jack Straw has sparked a row after claiming there is a problem with young Pakistani men grooming and sexually abusing vulnerable white girls.
The Blackburn MP talked of a "specific problem" involving Pakistani men who were "fizzing and popping with testosterone".
He added that a minority of these young men considered vulnerable white girls as "easy meat".
His comments have been attacked by fellow Labour MPs. One, Birmingham Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood, said Mr Straw's comments "perpetuated racist attitudes".
Mr Straw spoke after two Asian men who subjected a series of vulnerable girls to rapes and sexual assaults were given indefinite jail terms.
The pair led a group of men who befriended girls aged from 12 to 18 in the Derby area and groomed them for sex.
The judge said he did not believe Saddique and Liaqat's crimes were "racially aggravated".
But Mr Straw told Sky News: "There is an undeniable problem with a small minority of Pakistani-heritage men targeting vulnerable white girls.
"These white girls almost exclusively come from chaotic families, some are in care. Otherwise they would not be out on the streets, aged 12, 13, 14."
Mr Straw said he believed the young men were targeting white girls because Pakistani-heritage girls were "off limits".
He told Sky's Colin Brazier that the abusers often did less well at school than their white and Indian peers and drifted into crime.
But he added that it was important to acknowledge that sex offenders in general in the UK were "disproportianately white".
Mr Straw spoke to Sky after telling BBC Newsnight that Pakistani men were "fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani-heritage girls are off limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically".
He continued: "So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care... who they think are easy meat."
Leicester East MP Keith Vaz questioned why the ex-home secretary had not spoken out previously.
Mr Vaz, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said he did not believe there was a "cultural problem".
He told Sky News: "I understand what Jack Straw is saying, but I disagree. I think we should look at this issue primarily as one of criminality.
"I don't think we can make that jump necessarily to it being a cultural problem.
"This is about criminals behaving in a way against young women - they need to be prosecuted and they need to go to jail."
He called for a high-level investigation of such grooming across the UK and said nothing was gained by "lecturing communities about culture".
Mr Mahmood added: "It is not fair for Jack to make these anecdotal comments. Let's get some evidence before we start saying these things.
"All we are doing at the moment, with what Jack has said, is perpetrating racists attitudes towards the Pakistani community."
However Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley, supported Mr Straw's comments and said the Pakistani community should work to eradicate the problem.
She told Sky News: "There is no point saying the mosques should do it because these are not mosque men.
"But the mosques could have influence on the families of these men and tell them their behaviour is unIslamic, inhuman as well.
"I think this is something where men are bringing their families into disrepute and I think those families are our best hope for dealing with it."
This is stereo typing and racist to the fullest to to accuse the whole Pakistani community of men from just to men is a joke but the government is very smart by saying this as they have just planted the seed into people's minds thanks to the media machine just another way to cause conflict between religions and race so we stay separated and distracted from the important things that are going on in the world!!..Free your mind!!..
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