Migrants from cultures with “medieval attitudes to women” should be blocked from coming to Britain, the Tories have said amid the ongoing row over child grooming gangs.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said some of those who have migrated to the UK in recent years have “backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women” – and that “we have to be very careful about who is coming into this country”.
His remarks were supported by Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, who has previously said that all cultures are not “equally valid”.
The comments come as the Conservative Party scrambles to deal with the threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and secure the support of Right-wing voters.
Mr Farage’s party has been boosted by support from Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, whose social media posts about the grooming gangs scandal and criticism of Sir Keir Starmer for refusing to hold a national inquiry have thrown the issue back into the spotlight.
Mrs Badenoch will pile pressure on Labour to hold a new national inquiry into grooming gangs by attempting to force a vote in the Commons on the issue on Wednesday, and has launched a petition backing the move.
She is also demanding that foreign nationals found guilty of child sex abuse are deported.
However, the plans to block migrants from some cultures from coming to the UK has already sparked a backlash within the Tory party, with one moderate, Conservative peer Lord Ahmad, calling on Mr Jenrick to “reflect” on his comments.
At the weekend, Mr Jenrick suggested that Britons of Pakistani origin who took part in grooming gangs were “people from alien cultures”.
He wrote: “The scandal started with the onset of mass migration. Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here.”
Asked about the comments on Tuesday, the shadow justice secretary said the Tories could seek to limit immigration from such cultures.
He said: “We have seen millions of people enter the UK in recent years and some of them have backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women.”
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Asked if he was saying that the nation’s immigration policy should be changed to stop people with such attitudes from coming to the UK, Mr Jenrick told the BBC: “I think that we have to be very careful about who is coming into this country, the scale and pace of that immigration so that we can have a much more successful integration policy than we have today.
“I have always said, and it is a point made by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of my party, that not all cultures are equal.”
The comments sparked a backlash, with the Liberal Democrats calling on Mrs Badenoch to sack Mr Jenrick for the “divisive comments”.
Lord Ahmad urged the shadow justice secretary to “reflect” on some of his comments.
He told the BBC Radio 4 World at One programme: “Is he putting victims of these abhorrent crimes at the heart of the solutions that do exist… or is he trying to play to a particular audience to incite particular thinking and particular views against a particular community?”
However, a spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said: “Robert Jenrick did an excellent job this morning explaining the pressing need for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.
“The Liberal Democrats should spend less time worrying about tweets, and instead explain to the British people why they oppose an inquiry that would end the culture of cover ups in our institutions and finally get justice for the victims.”
Mrs Badenoch wrote in a piece for The Telegraph in September that “we need to demand that those who come here love this country and will maintain and uphold its traditions, not change them”.
She said: “Culture is more than cuisine or clothes. It’s also customs which may be at odds with British values. We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
Asked about Mr Jenrick’s comments, the Prime Minister’s spokesman suggested that they were a “distraction from the core issue” of protecting children from sexual abuse.
Sir Keir has refused to hold a new inquiry into grooming gangs, and on Monday accused Mrs Badenoch of climbing on a “far-Right bandwagon” by supporting one.
On Wednesday the Tories will try to force a vote on the issue, by putting down an amendment to a government education Bill calling on the Prime Minister to convene such an inquiry.
Labour will tell its MPs to vote against the amendment, because if passed it would force the whole legislation to collapse.
Last night the Conservative leader also launched a petition designed to pile pressure on the Government to hold a new national inquiry into the scandal.
Mrs Badenoch said any new inquiry must “consider the religious or racial motivations for these crimes”.
And she said it must “identify those public servants who facilitated or ignored this abuse so they can be removed from office”.
Mrs Badenoch added: “Any foreign national offenders involved in the abuse must be deported.”
In a message to supporters, she said: “Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that calling for a national inquiry into the torture and rape of countless vulnerable, white, working-class girls was a ‘far-Right bandwagon’.
“This is nonsense, and this smear tactic won’t stop us asking difficult questions.
“A national inquiry is needed because previous inquiries we set up have not joined the dots.
“In too many cases police, politicians and local officials colluded to keep the rape gangs scandal under wraps. Some even cooperated with the gangs.
“The only way to expose those who turned a blind eye is to hold a full public inquiry.”
Labour MPs will be whipped to vote against Wednesday’s attempt to force the government to establish a national inquiry into grooming gangs by tacking an amendment to the second reading of the Children, Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Second reading is the first big stage a Bill has to clear on its passage to becoming law and it is when MPs vote on the broad principle of proposed legislation.
Amendments to add sections or delete sections from the text of a Bill are not considered at second reading, that happens at later stages of scrutiny.
A vote on a “reasoned amendment” can happen at second reading. However, “reasoned amendments” essentially set out reasons for rejecting a Bill and if they pass they stop the legislation in question from making any progress.
Sir Keir’s spokesman said that this was why the Government would vote against such an amendment.
“The mechanism for this amendment would involve the Opposition voting against the entire [Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill],” he said.
“That means a vote against improved safeguarding measures for vulnerable children, that means a vote against putting more cash in working parents’ pockets by capping school uniform costs.”
The spokesman also repeated the Government’s position that there was no need for a new inquiry, as the probe by Professor Alexis Jay – which had covered similar ground – was only eight years old.
