UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said that those who targeted young British girls as part of grooming gangs come from a “peasant” subset of Pakistanis.
Speaking to GN News, Bedenoch – who has called for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal – said that “innocent people” were being lumped in with those who committed the abuse due to a “culture of silence” surrounding willingness to speak about the identity of the abusers.
The official spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to Badenoch’s remarks saying “I don’t think that’s language he [Starmer] would use.” and that “It’s not language he’s used, or indeed, I’d envisage him using.”
Last week a majority of MPs voted against holding a national inquiry.
Badenoch said that, having spoken to survivors, she has learned that the abuse is still ongoing, saying that parents have also told her, “this is still happening” to their children.
“The problem is not solved,” she said.
She criticized previous reports into issues surrounding grooming gangs saying they did not look “deeply” into the issues of the gangs themselves, saying that it was her “understanding” that these reports would focus on the issue of grooming.
Badenoch says that there are “two cultural issues” at play, one of which “on the perpetrators side” is “where do these abusers come from”.
She said there was a lot of “misinformation” and “generalisation” leading to “many innocent people being grouped in with them.”
“We look at it, there is a systematic pattern of behaviour, not even just from one country, but from sub communities within those countries, people with a particular background, particular class background, work background.” she said.
Badenoch continued that the people she was referring to are from a “very, very poor, sort of peasant background” in “very, very rural” areas which she said are “almost cut off” from the more metropolitan areas of their home countries.
She said that these individuals had taken advantage of jobs such as driving taxis to facilitate the abuse they participated in.
Badenoch said that the second “cultural issue” was that of “silence” from the authorities.
“A National Inquiry needs to look at the two cultural issues at the same time”, she said adding that what was “most extraordinary” for her was the abusers’ belief that they would “get away with it”.
“If they didn’t think they would get away with it, I’m quite sure we would not be seeing the numbers that we’re seeing now. “
She said the benefit of a statutory national inquiry would be its power to “force” people to “turn up and give evidence”.
Badenoch said that each perpetrator “needs to be caught and brought to justice” and those “who failed in their duty to protect children” also need to be held accountable.
Responding to political reluctance to support a national inquiry, she said, “This is about getting the truth,” she said, adding, “and everybody should stand for that”.
She said that councils adopting the position that referring to “Asian grooming gangs” as “Islamophobic” was “not right” in the UK saying, “we have freedom of religion, we do not have blasphemy laws”.
She added that anyone in the UK is not allowed to use their religion as “a cover” for breaking the laws of the land.
“We need equality under the law in this country, there’s no special treatment for any special group,” she said.
Badenoch said, “We should do everything we can to ensure offenders are deported,” adding that it was, “absolutely disgusting that foreigners that commit crimes in our country and get away with it,”.
“If the ECHR is the problem that needs to be fixed,” she said, adding that issues with sentencing which she said in some cases even legislators are not aware of also need to be looked at.
“We need these powers in order to be able to keep our country and our communities safe,” she said.