Kemi Badenoch has said that “peasants” from “sub-communities” within some countries are behind the grooming gangs abuse that has scarred Britain.
In an exclusive interview with GB News, the Tory leader reaffirmed her call for a public national inquiry into the abuse scandal.
She said that the “predatory” behaviour was being perpetrated by a culture of abuse but also a “culture of silence” that covered up the atrocities.
Taking aim at the gangs, she said: “There are some places where when people behave in that way, a mob turns up and burns their homes down, and then they know that they can’t do that sort of thing.
Kemi Badenoch sat down with Charlie Peters to discuss the grooming gangs scandal
GB NEWS
“What for me is most extraordinary about this case is that clearly these people thought that they could get away with it. That is the thing that we should be looking at.”
Badenoch made her intervention after meeting with several survivors of the abuse gangs in Oldham and Rotherham.
She described her shock after her meeting with the women.
“They told me about their experiences with the rape gangs,” Badenoch said. “The most shocking thing was how they had gone to the authorities, and multiple times to the police.
“In one particular case, the police actually handed a 12-year-old into the hands of abusers. That, I think, is extraordinary.”
Keir Starmer spoke at a press conference earlier this month
PA
She added: “So the failure of state bodies, whether it’s the police, social services, is one of the areas that I think needs to be looked at much more deeply.”
Challenged on why she and the Conservatives did not call for a public inquiry while they were in power, she said that she was waiting for various inquiries to conclude before taking further action.
“We’ve had multiple non-national inquiries,” Badenoch told the People’s Channel. “They are not enough. Let’s do more.
“That’s where we need to get to looking at things that have not been looked at previously. And my view is that there are a lot of people who have to give an explanation for why they failed, why they failed a lot of these young girls.”
The abuse gangs scandal has shot back into prominence after GB News revealed that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips had blocked a request from Oldham Council for a Government-led inquiry into the abuse.
The Conservatives called for a national inquiry the day after, with tech billionaire Elon Musk sharing coverage of the story.
Referring to grooming gang perpetrators, who are overwhelmingly of Pakistani heritage in prosecution data, Badenoch said: “Here is a systematic pattern of behaviour, not even just from one country, but from sub-communities within those countries.
When asked which background they were from, she said: “Very, very poor sort of peasant background, very, very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in. They’re not necessarily first generation.”
She also referred to “the jobs that they were doing,” such as being taxi drivers, “which allowed them to exhibit this predatory behavior.”
Badenoch defended the previous Tory government’s track record on tackling the gangs, but stressed “I am now the leader of the Conservative Party. We’re going to be doing things differently.”
She added: “This is an issue I personally care about. I have been a young girl. I’ve been a young woman. I have two daughters. This stuff terrifies me.”
The Tory leader said: “I don’t keep quiet when I see something that’s going wrong.
“Whether it was with getting justice for postmasters, whether it was stopping rapists from being put in women’s prisons … whether it was stopping mostly gay autistic children from being sterilized under the cover of trans when they needed different help.”
Charlie Peters discussing the grooming gangs scandal with Kemi Badenoch
GB NEWS
Since a parliamentary vote against a national inquiry last week, several Labour figures have called for a fresh public investigation.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, and Liverpool MP Dan Carden have been among those breaking ranks with the Prime Minister on the issue.
Addressing MPs from other parties, Badenoch said: “This is about those victims who deserve justice. The survivors who deserve justice by making sure that every single perpetrator we can find is caught and brought to justice, and those who failed in their duty to protect their children are held to account and exposed.
“And an inquiry means that they have to come out and explain what they did or what they didn’t do. And then the truth will out. This is about getting the truth, and everybody should stand for that.”
Asked on how she would tackle the crisis of grooming gang offenders not being deported, the Saffron Walden MP said: “If the ECHR is the problem, that needs to be fixed. But my view is that it goes well beyond that.”
She closed with a message to the thousands of survivors across the country: “I know many of you will be nervous. I know many of you will be afraid. But having spoken to some of you, I know that you want justice and you feel let down, that the people who should have looked after you did not look after you.
“And that needs to change. And I’m going to do everything, and the Conservative Party is going to do everything, to make sure that you get justice.”
