'Jess Phillips can fight her own battles,' claims Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader weighs in on grooming gangs row

16 January 2025, 19:54 | Updated: 16 January 2025, 23:07

Kemi Badenoch has said Jess Phillips can "fight her own battles" as she weighed in on the grooming gangs row.

The Tory leader spoke to LBC's Iain Dale on Thursday evening about Elon Musk - whom she admitted was "rude and insulting" when he described the Birmingham Yardley MP as a "rape genocide apologist" in a tweet, sparking outrage.

In response to the row and subsequent abuse aimed at the Safeguarding Minister, Badenoch said she would not "wade into everybody's battle".

The safeguarding minister previously hit back at the Tesla boss said we shouldn't be listening to a man who knows "absolutely nothing" about grooming gangs in the UK.

He made the comments after she resisted ordering an inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham.

Badenoch also defended her decision to not sack Robert Jenrick in the shadow cabinet for describing Britons of Pakistani origin as from "alien cultures".

She responded saying that the Conservative Party is a "broad church".

"I consider Rob a friend, we will all have disagreements, there are all sorts of things people say...but I understand where he's coming from...of course we need to be careful about language but we also need to be accurate".

Badenoch also stated she didn't want to see people lumped in with the rapists and the groomers "unfairly".

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However, she stressed that not talking about certain aspects of the grooming gangs scandal creates a "vaccuum".

"When people use the phrase 'Asian grooming gangs', even 'Pakistani grooming gangs', what I was actually saying this is a very, very specific community that is over-represented.

"It's not about Pakistan, it's not about people from Lahore.

"But, we mustn't run away from things...the specific cases we are talking about in Telford, Rotherham, Rochdale - there was a prevalence of people from that particular tiny region in Pakistan amongst others.

"If we try not to talk about it, we create a vacuum".

Kemi Badenoch defends Robert Jenrick over 'alien cultures' tweet

The Tory leader also denied the wish to merge the party with Reform UK.

"The fact is Nigel Farage has said he wants to destroy the Conservative party. That for me is a red line."

Badenoch also said it could be up to two years before she announces any policies.

She stated: "I would like to see things in 18 months to two years' time, it may take longer".

She stressed that she wants people to know that the Conservative party is "under new leadership".

"We are drawing a line under the past and we are going to be working very hard to earn the trust of the British people.

"We need to be an effective opposition but we also want to let people know we're going to be doing things differently."

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