Kemi Badenoch blames ‘peasants’ from ‘sub-communities’ for grooming gangs abuse
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Kemi Badenoch has blamed “peasants” from “sub-communities” within foreign countries for the grooming gangs crisis. The Conservative also told GB News hearing victims’ accounts were “quite shocking” as she reaffirmed calls for a national inquiry into the scandal.
Mrs Badenoch said cultural issues surrounding the problem also needed to be examined. “One is on the perpetrators’ side: where do these abusers come from? There’s a lot of misinformation, there’s a lot of generalisation and many innocent people will end up being grouped in with them,” she said.
“But 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, work background. People with a very poor background, a sort of peasant background, very, very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in.
The Tory leader has repeatedly clashed with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over calls for a national inquiry. The Government has previously knocked back calls for a national review in favour of locally-led inquiries, saying it is focused on delivering recommendations to Professor Alexis Jay’s 2022 report on the issue.
The issue gained international attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk posted a slew of attacks aimed at the Prime Minister over the issue at the start of the year. Mrs Badenoch said a national inquiry would shine a light on the truth and hold people to account.
