Badenoch 'Grooming gang culprits are peasants from sub-communities'

Kemi Badenoch said yesterday that "peasants" from "sub-communities" in some countries were in grooming and rape gangs and that a national inquiry would seek to identify those in authority who did not act.

- Jessica Elgot

"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," the Conservative leader told 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."

Her comments came as two more Labour MPs said they would back a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, who has been a long-time campaigner on the sexual abuse of women and girls, said she had been convinced of the need for a national investigation - which she said should be made up of a series of local inquiries that fed back to government.

The Labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh, also said he was open to a new inquiry, as did the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.