London: British historian David Starkey has provoked controversy after proclaiming that the Rochdale child exploitation gang, who raped vulnerable teenage girls, had values ``that were entrenched in foothills of the Punjab`` or whatever it is.
According to The Daily Mail, Starkey was branded a ``racist`` and a ``bigot`` following a heated conversation with a journalist during a discussion at Wellington College in Berkshire. He incensed audience member journalist Laurie Penny, when he said that the sex gang, who was jailed last month for grooming white girls for sex, had values ``of the Punjab”.
He added that the gang needed to be ``inculcated in the British ways of doing things”.
Laurie Penny, 25, who writes for the New Statesman, later joined the panel that was discussing Britishness and accused Starkey of ``playing xenophobia and national prejudice for laughs”. ANI