Badenoch urged to sack Jenrick for saying ‘immigrants with alien cultures have medieval attitudes to women’
Robert Jenrick stood by his claim that Britain has failed at integrating immigrants from some countries, pointing to the grooming gangs scandal as apparent evidence
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Your support makes all the difference.Kemi Badenoch has been urged to sack Robert Jenrick after he suggested the Tories could cap immigration from “alien cultures with medieval attitudes towards women”.
The shadow justice secretary stood by his claim that Britain has failed at integrating immigrants from some countries, pointing to the grooming gangs scandal as evidence.
“The scandal started with the onset of mass migration… importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last week.
Mr Jenrick has been accused of “jumping on the bandwagon” after the issue was pushed by tech billionaire Elon Musk with a series of attacks on Sir Keir Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
He has not condemned Mr Musk’s language and appeared to be aping the far-right rhetoric – even though the world’s richest man has been openly supporting far-right extremists such as Tommy Robinson and Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in Germany.
Pressed about his language against Muslims on Tuesday, Mr Jenrick told GB News that Britain has welcomed “millions of people in recent years… and some of them have backwards, frankly medieval attitudes to women”.
The comments came after days of calls for a fresh national inquiry into grooming gangs, fuelled by Mr Musk and backed by the Conservatives.
The Tories have demanded a new UK-wide inquiry into child sexual abuse, despite a wide-ranging independent probe having concluded its work in 2022.
On Wednesday, Ms Badenoch’s party will bring forward an amendment to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is expected to call for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien claimed the Government was “blocking a full national inquiry”, adding: “This cannot stand, so the Conservatives have tabled an amendment to their Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to call for an inquiry.
“Labour MPs now have a first chance to vote to give victims answers and justice, and pass an amendment that will make clear that the will of Parliament is for a national inquiry.
“But if they fail to do so, the Conservatives will not back down, and will continue to amend the Bill at every opportunity.”
It came as friends of Mr Jenrick told The Independent that he still harbours ambitions to be Tory leader amid speculation that Ms Badenoch may not survive.
Recent defections by former Tories like Marco Longhi and Dame Andrea Jenkyns to Reform UK has led one senior Tory to speculate that Mr Jenrick, who was runner-up to Ms Badenoch last autumn, is “unsackable”, adding: “She knows there’s a danger of him walking over to Reform or at very least thousands more defecting.”
Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether that meant the Conservatives would limit immigration among those with such attitudes, Mr Jenrick said: “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.”
He added: “I have always said, and it is a point made by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of my party, that not all cultures are equal. We should be very careful about who is coming into this country and the scale of immigration.”
Pakistan was among the countries Mr Jenrick singled out as one of those from which people come with “medieval attitudes”. And BBC presenter Nick Robinson asked him: “Does Sajid Javid’s family come with a medieval culture to this country? Does Sadiq Khan’s family have a medieval [culture]? How are you going to identify those who are acceptable and those who are not?”
The Liberal Democrats called for Ms Badenoch to sack her shadow cabinet colleague. But a spokesperson for Ms Badenoch said the Lib Dems should spend less time worrying about tweets and explain why they oppose a fresh inquiry into the grooming scandal.
Mr Jenrick was also condemned on Sunday over his original comments by the former Conservative Party special adviser Samuel Kasumu, who told the BBC his “blood was boiling” over the comments.
He said: “I don’t think that Elon Musk or Nigel Farage are the most dangerous individuals in our country. I think Robert Jenrick has the potential to be the most divisive person in our political history.
“I think some of his words over the last 12 months may result in some people maybe even dying because he has the potential to incite hatred in ways that I have never seen.”
Ms Badenoch defended her colleague, saying it was important “to have tough conversations, no matter how difficult that may be to hear”.
But Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Ms Badenoch should sack him, calling his comments “shameless”.
“He didn’t lift a finger to help the victims when a minister, now he’s jumping on the bandwagon and acting like a pound shop Farage,” she said.
“Kemi Badenoch should sack him as shadow justice secretary and condemn his divisive comments, instead of letting him run a leadership campaign under her nose.”
Amnesty International said Mr Jenrick should spend his time supporting efforts to tackle sexual offenders rather than spreading “divisive and ill-informed rhetoric”. Gender justice director Chiara Capraro said: “Violence against women and girls is endemic in all corners of our society and successive governments and institutions have failed to tackle it.
“The horrors of child abuse deserve a serious response, not the blatant prejudice and hostile commentary targeting minorities we’re currently seeing.
“Politicians like Mr Jenrick should be supporting all serious efforts to bring the perpetrators of sexual offences to justice and doing so without resorting to divisive and ill-informed rhetoric about migration.”
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon added: “It can never be right to judge a whole community by the actions of a group of individuals. After the 2024 riots, which saw violent mobs chanting ‘stop the boats’ as they attacked refugees, it is clear that political rhetoric has consequences.
“Labelling migrants and refugees as dangerous or medieval just adds fire to a debate that has already become too toxic and divisive.”
A spokesperson for Kemi Badenoch said: “Robert Jenrick did an excellent job this morning explaining the pressing need for a national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. The Lib Dems 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.”
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