A BOLTON MP has weighed into the debate over the resignation of a Labour frontbencher after comments she made about grooming gangs.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, resigned from the shadow cabinet after saying in an article that ‘Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls'. 

She has since apologised for her ‘extremely poor choice of words’ and quit as shadow equalities minister.

The article was written after 17 men were convicted of forcing girls in Newcastle to have sex.

The men, who were mostly British-born, were from Iraqi, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iranian and Turkish communities.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4 this morning, Bolton South-East MP and shadow justice minister, Yasmin Qureshi refused to be drawn on whether it was right that Ms Champion stepped down.

"I think you need to ask Sarah that question,” she said. “My understanding is that she tended her resignation and that it was accepted."

Jeremy Corbyn backs Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qurehsi amid debate over 'British Pakistani' grooming gangs

When asked whether she felt that it was concerning that so many second-generation Pakistani men in this country have been exploiting white girls and whether something should be done about it, she said:

“Yes something needs to be done and if people are convicted they should get as long a sentence as possible and I think that for that kind of criminality, they deserve to have the key thrown away.

"But I was a prosecutor before I became an MP and what happened in Newcastle, I can remember a similar case in the 90s where there were seven males who were not of that ethnicity who were doing something similar.

"Of course, we should deal with abuse when it occurs and we should ask ourselves what we can do to make sure that these things do not happen again - we should look at every aspect."

When Marilyn Hawes, founder of Enough Abuse UK - an organisation who deals with child abuse - challenged Ms Qureshi, she said: "I was born in Pakistan and raised in this country and I have never in my family come across people saying that we should be going around abusing people.

"I have never heard this kind of talk in my family so with the greatest of respect you don’t know what you are talking about."