To our shame, slaves are being raped, beaten and starved in towns up and down the UK says Iain Duncan Smith, as he backs Sun’s Stamp Out Slavery Campaign

MEN working 20-hour days at the car-wash, women forced to paint nails or risk being beaten at suburban salons, young girls trapped, beaten and abused in brothels – it sounds like something out of a horror film.

But, to our shame, an estimated 136,000 men and women are living like this in the UK right now - they are victims of modern slavery - and they need our help.

Over the past fortnight, as part of their Stamp Out Slavery campaign, the Sun has told the stories of men and women like Elvira, who are brought over to the UK and forced to work as domestic and forced labour slaves.

Elvira was forced to work for 20 hours a day for her slave masters. She, like Brenda, who came over to the UK to send money back to her family in Asia, are forced to cook and clean for little or no pay, and are stripped of their basic human rights.

We have seen how others, trafficked in by eastern European or Russian gangs, are forced to work as manual labourers - often in cheap car washes, some which are unsafe, risking illnesses from chemicals and even death.

This was the case for Sandu, who was tragically electrocuted and killed in the flat he shared with five other workers behind the car-washing site they worked at for 12 hours a day.

In some cases these innocent people are promised jobs that will give them a better life, only to find themselves dropping off fake charity collection bags for rings of criminals, and savagely beaten if they refuse.

It’s terrible that this can be happening in our country in 2019, that these victims are being brought over to this country and subjected to such brutal exploitation and violence.

I know Sun readers will back this campaign with me. The real hardworking people of this country have always had a sense of natural justice and when something is wrong, they call it out.

Iain Duncan Smith

I am backing the Sun's Stamp Out Slavery campaign - which calls to change the amount of time victims are allowed to remain in the UK, - because I truly believe we have to do more to help and treat victims of modern slavery .

We should be holding out for Lord McColl’s bill for victims rights to stay for 12 months minimum, which even though I think is still quite short, does give the victims more help.

We owe these poor people a real chance of stability and protection, and at the moment we in the United Kingdom clearly do not give them that.

We can’t sit back and watch on when there is injustice happening on home soil. We must rectify that. The government has got to listen now.

You can sign the petition for the Modern Slavery Victim Support Bill .