MacShane on attack over sex slaves

The slavery jibe came from Rotherham MP Denis MacShane, speaking in a Commons’ debate on trafficking.

Dr MacShane said that Prime Minister David Cameron had misled MPs when he told Parliament last month that Britain was fully compliant with provisions in a proposed EU Directive on Sex Slave Trafficking.

Dr MacShane told MPs that UK law did not cover proposals from the EU including the key provision to appoint a national rapporteur to highlight the problem and was only “semi-compliant” in other areas.

He said that the refusal of Foreign Secretary William Hague, the minister responsible for EU policy, to support the directive was the result of “pandering” to Tory Eurosceptic backbenchers who opposed any move if it had the word Europe attached to it.

The former Europe minister added that Britain was sending the wrong signal to other EU member states by its refusal to support the directive.

“The Foreign Secretary, in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, was pandering to the latent Euroscepticism of his back benchers, but about sending a signal to every other EU member state that Britain is part of the joint European campaign,” Dr MacShane added.

“It is also about sending a signal elsewhere in the world that we are prepared to change our law to conform fully to the EU directives, as have all the other EU member states that have signed up, and take the campaign forward internationally.”

Dr MacShane quoted the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who has denounced what he calls “modern-day slavery” and urged the Government to sign up to the directive.

After the debate in which the Conservative Home Office minister, Damian Green, said  Britain was right to maintain its opt-out, Dr MacShane said that anti-trafficking MPs and organisations active in the campaign against sex-slave trafficking would continue to press the Government to support the EU Directive.