Kemi Badenoch has called for a fresh probe into the ‘rape gangs scandal’ in the UK.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch, leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, has called for a comprehensive inquiry to uncover those who turned a blind eye to the grooming gangs responsible for the rape of thousands of girls in the UK.
In a strongly-worded article, Badenoch expressed outrage, stating, “Britain has witnessed the mass grooming of thousands of the most vulnerable white working-class girls – children – by gangs of men, many of Pakistani heritage. This was rape on an industrial scale.”
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Badenoch condemned the systemic failures that allowed the abuse to persist, saying, “Shockingly, it was a scandal made possible by the collusion and cover-ups of officials, the police and politicians who were more concerned about community relations than about victims and their families.”
She emphasised the racial aspect of the crimes, noting, “The fact that perpetrators of this sexual violence appeared to have deliberately picked victims because they were white – and not from their community or religious background – must not be ignored. Previous inquiries have failed to examine this. It’s for society and the state to address the issue, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.”
Detailing the victims’ harrowing experiences, Badenoch said, *“The testimonies of the victims are hard to read. Girls being forced into barbaric sexual acts. Raped by multiple men at the same time or one after the other. Punished by grotesque sexual violence when they resisted.
“Children were identified as targets because of their backgrounds and experienced years of systematic abuse from adult men whose communities in some cases even helped protect them. Thousands of girls’ lives have been damaged or destroyed. Worse still, this was perpetrated not in one rotten borough by a few rotten individuals, but across the nation.”
She highlighted disturbing examples of complicity, including social workers attending a “Nikah,” an Islamic wedding ceremony between an abuser and his victim.
She also recounted incidents where authorities prioritized optics over justice, saying, “Of councils and a police chief collaborating to keep the extent of the child rape scandal out of the headlines for fear of inflaming community relations or being called racist. And of academics and charity workers drafting obfuscatory reports to conceal the true scale of the problem. This can never be allowed to happen again.”
Badenoch acknowledged the efforts of individuals who resisted systemic failures, stating, “A number of heroes fought a lonely battle against not only a conspiracy of silence but active hostility that victims faced from officialdom. Failing councils were taken over, like Rotherham in 2015. Grooming gang members were prosecuted. The Grooming Gang Taskforce, launched in April 2023, made over 500 arrests in its first year.”
However, she stressed that more needs to be done to hold institutions accountable, saying, “We still need to know the extent to which institutions like the police, prosecutors, local government and social services are compromised by wrong-headed political correctness, and even self-interest. Only then can we have any hope of upholding our laws and culture, and preventing this scale of abuse ever again.”
Badenoch called for a national inquiry with broad investigative powers, asserting, “The inquiry I want to see should start by considering the likely racial or religious motivation of these crimes. It should identify all of the institutions and bodies that failed. It should also identify those individuals who facilitated or ignored these crimes so they can be removed from their roles.”
She concluded with a firm message: “No lenience should be shown to those who rape and exploit children, nor can we tolerate those who protect predators.”
