Senior Tories have expressed unease about Kemi Badenoch pivoting towards the position of Elon Musk and Reform UK over grooming gangs.
One Conservative MP said the party was in a “panic” over Reform, while a former cabinet minister said it looked like the Tory leader was seeking “approbation from a South African émigré” with “more money than sense”.
A Tory peer also said shadow Justice Secretary’s Robert Jenrick’s reference to immigrants with “alien cultures” went “beyond” the language that “a centre right party should be using”.
Badenoch has followed Musk and Nigel Farage’s party in calling for a national inquiry to be held into grooming gangs who have sexually exploited young girls.
In an article for The Telegraph last week, Jenrick said that the over-representation of men from Pakistani heritage in the gangs was the result of “mass migration… importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women”.
He reiterated these comments on Times Radio on Tuesday saying: “What I have said is that millions of people have come into our country in recent times, but some of them are coming from countries and cultures that have backwards attitudes to women.
“Pakistani men are over-represented in those who are involved in the grooming gangs, and the evidence we have seen is that some of those have specifically preyed upon white, working-class girls because they viewed them as worthless.
“We can’t dismiss that and I’m not going to sanitise or tiptoe around this issue.”
Jenrick’s rhetoric and Badenoch’s stance on the issue has caused disquiet among some Centrist Tories.
‘Panic’ about Reform
One Conservative MP told The i Paper: “There is a panic about Reform taking ground. [Badenoch’s] not behaving like a confident grown-up.”
Asked whether the Conservatives were wise to echo Reform by calling for a public inquiry into the gangs, another Tory MP cast doubt on the strategy.
They said: “There are constitutional duties in being the party of opposition, but I think the focus should be more on demonstrating that we are a stable, sensible alternative to the Government – that we are an establishment party that can be trusted.”
A former Tory cabinet minister said it was “worrying”. “It’s not so much Farage, it’s Elon Musk who seems to be in the first week of the New Year setting the political agenda in the UK and I think we should all be worried about that.
“This call for a national inquiry – into what, about what? We’ve had inquiries coming out of our bloody ears… this concept that everything has to be a statutory inquiry. Really? Why?”
“The Telford inquiry [into child sexual exploitation] was a really good example of how to do it. Nobody has criticised the Telford inquiry for being other than independent and robust and having the full support of survivors.
“That’s all been lost in the rush to want to be either ahead of the agenda or to receive some sort of approbation from a South African émigré who’s a naturalised American, who’s got more money than sense and is commenting about things that really he knows nothing about.”
Taking aim at Jenrick’s rhetoric, a Tory peer said: “Some of the language goes beyond what a centre right party should be using.”
The peer said it was “absolutely right to draw attention to the issue” of ethnicity in relation to the gangs.
“While it’s not entirely an ethnicity problem – it’s wrong to say that all of the people involved from these gangs are from a particular ethnic minority – it’s undoubtedly the case that the sensitivity about the race question was a factor here,” they said.
“It’s entirely appropriate to discuss that, but a centre-right party should be doing so in language that seeks to bring people together and not exacerbate tensions essentially.”
Inquiry call backed
However, the Tory backed Badenoch’s decision on calling for an inquiry. “I think there is a case that the previous inquiry [by Alexis Jay] was very broad-ranging and not just looking at the specific issue of grooming gangs, it was about the wider sexual abuse of children in all sorts of different settings.
“But obviously the challenge [Badenoch’s] got, which is the challenge she’s going to have for the next year or two, is anything you say, the question is going to be, ‘well why didn’t you this when you were in government?'”
Some of the comments are from more centrist or One Nation members of the part reveal the difficulties Badenoch will have in bringing her party together after a bruising general election.
Many of those who voted for Badenoch as leader did so because they believed her forthright manner would help the party “cut through” with it’s messaging.
Badenoch is also having to keep one eye on Nigel Farage’s Reform Party which recently boasted its membership had overtaken that of the Tories and is attracting defections from the Tories.
But in seeing off Reform she may risk alienating the left of her party.
Allies of Badenoch rejected the criticism of her stance, saying that the Tory leader is calling for an inquiry because she wants to join the dots in the decades of failure by police, charities, social services and other authorities.
They also dismissed the charge she could have made more of the issue during the Tories’ 14 years in power and said that implementing the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s review into child sexual abuse did not fall under her brief.
Another Tory said of Badenoch’s stance: “I just think it’s what she believes and what is politically convenient (a rare combination).”
Children’s Wellbeing Bill
On Wednesday, the Tories are planning to put forward an amendment to the children’s wellbeing bill which would require a full national inquiry.
However, because the bill is at the second reading stage, it is only possible to put down an amendment which will kill the bill entirely – something Labour criticised.
A government source said: “They’re just playing games. What do the facts matter anymore?”
But the shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that Labour was showing “total moral cowardice” in deciding to whip against the amendment.
A Badenoch ally said: “Kemi is proud to be leading on the rape gangs scandal. Standing up for the victims of the rape gangs is yet another example of Kemi asking the difficult questions that need asking and giving a voice to the voiceless.
“She has never been afraid to confront difficult truths and she isn’t now. Kemi was among the first to call for a national inquiry and she and her shadow cabinet have sent Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper into a tailspin and completely thrown off the No10 grid.”
The head of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said “the time has passed” for another lengthy examination of grooming gangs and that the row is “distracting from the issues”.
Professor Alexis Jay said “we’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions” as she called for action.
Prof Jay produced a report on grooming gangs in Rotherham in 2014 and then chaired the national inquiry into various forms of child sexual abuse which reported in 2022.
