May rejects Sentamu plea on sex trafficking

She admitted she was aware of Dr John Sentamu's plea in Saturday's Yorkshire Post for Ministers to rethink the move, and insisted that she took the issue of trafficking "very seriously".

But she said most of the elements of the directive were already being adopted in the UK and promised a strategy on ending violence against women within a year.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Rotherham MP Denis MacShane urged Mrs May: "The point is to send a signal to the pimps and the traffickers which are operating at a European level. Don't stand on the side of the pimps and the traffickers, stand with the Archbishop of York."

Mrs May, who also came under pressure from other Labour MPs, said: "Most of the elements of the EU human trafficking directive actually are things that are being adopted already here in the UK because this is an issue that we all take very seriously."

In his article Dr Sentamu, a longstanding campaigner on the issue, said: "I am stunned to learn that the Government is 'opting out' of an EU directive designed to tackle sex trafficking. Generally, I am no great supporter of European directives, because of the supremacy of our Parliament, but this seems to be a common-sense directive designed to co-ordinate European efforts to combat the trade in sex slaves."

The Home Office has pledged the matter will be regularly reviewed.